“You doubt his sincerity? Oh, but he was so sincere. He didn’t make me stand in this meadow. He accepted my invitation, came right to my house, to prove how much he trusted me. Don’t you trust me?”

“No.”

Another barely contained grin. “You should. It makes things so much more pleasant. The other angel sat right at my table and told me he understood that I’d been tempted and succumbed. After all, I was human…just as he’d been, so he understood temptation. What the Fates did to me was wrong, putting this poor sinner in such a situation, into contact with one such as the Nix. She tempted me, and I fell from grace.”

“Uh-huh. Moving right along. You know why I’m here, so—”

“See? Now you’re being rude. Katsuo was so much nicer. He wasn’t in a hurry. He listened to me, listened most intently as I confessed my sins and told him what the Nix and I had done. Then I told him what I wished I’d done…in beautiful, intricate detail, everything I wished I could have done to those women, if only it had been me in those killers’ bodies. I described every cut I would have made, every degradation I would have inflicted.” Dachev’s face gathered in a mock frown. “That’s when he left. Left without even saying good-bye.” He looked over at me. “Do you think Katsuo remembers me? Perhaps in his dreams?” He flashed a wide smile. “I hope so.”

I said nothing.

“Do angels dream?” he said. “Can they have nightmares? Or are they all dreams like this?” He waved a dismissive hand around the meadow. “Visions of wildflowers and sunny skies. We dream, you know. When we sleep, the cracks in our memory open, just enough to let out a flash here, a glimpse there. And there are no wildflowers and sunny skies in our dreams. Sometimes I hear the others screaming. They keep me awake at night.”

“Damned shame.”

A shark-toothed smile. “A damned shame indeed. You aren’t even going to feign sympathy, are you?”

“If you want sympathy, I’ll send Katsuo. If you want to cut a deal, you’re stuck with me.”

“A deal? I do like the sound of that. Let me see…what should I ask for? Well, first, of course, I want out of here.”

I laughed.

“Oh, not permanently. Just a visit, under escort, of course. I—”

“No. I couldn’t arrange it even if I wanted to.”

“Pictures, then.”

“Huh?”

“When I was out there, with the Nix, whenever we killed someone, the police took so many pictures. Click, click, click. Every angle, every close-up.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “Such attention to detail. Even I was impressed.”

“You want those photos?” I said.