I stood and headed back to the bedroom, inching the door open and poking my head through the crack to give the room a quick scan. The necklace was there on the nightstand, the pendant glinting in the dull, gray light of the overcast morning.

The burst of adrenaline I’d felt during the few seconds that I feared I’d lost my necklace abated, and I could breathe a little easier. I tiptoed into the bedroom and retrieved it, then returned to the living room once more, easing the door shut behind me. Dom was already talking to me as I secured the clasp behind my neck.

“Where have you been?” he demanded. “I’ve been trying to get through to you for hours. You know I don’t like it when you take the necklace off. I need to be able to speak to you whenever I—”

“I was having sex.” I perched on the edge of the couch and looked at the compact, meeting Dom’s silvery stare. We had an agreement, he and I—I would only remove the pendant during amorous moments, and he would keep his incorporeal mouth shut about my perceived promiscuity. This was the first time I’d tested that agreement.

Dom pressed his lips together into a thin, flat line. “I couldn’t get through to you for the entire night.”

I raised a single eyebrow, smirking. “It was a lot of sex.”

His expression was flat, unamused.

“So what did you find out?”

He blinked and, just like that, was back to business. “None of the kids Neffe and Aset took back to Bainbridge are showing signs of the illness, but apparently some of them are missing.”

“Missing?”

Dom nodded. “It would seem we did not rescue all of the children who were abducted. Some, like this Sammy, were taken away. They were never seen again by the children still in the holding cells. Rumors spread about the missing children being killed, or even escaping, but none knew for sure.”

“How many disappeared?”

“Seven,” Dom said. “Heru has people checking in with all of the hospitals in the area, but so far, there’s no sign of an outbreak cropping up anywhere but in the Tent District.”

“It might be too soon for anything specific to have been noted, let alone reported. It is flu season, after all.” I chewed the inside of my cheek and nodded to myself. “Let me know if they find anything, or if they hear anything new.”

Dom raised a single brow, his smirk mirroring mine from just moments ago. “So long as I can get through to you, of course.”

It was my turn to level a flat look at him. “Of course.”

“Neffe and Aset have requested blood samples from the victims, but they’re too busy to collect the samples themselves.”

“So, what—they want me to do it?”

“No,” Dom said. “Not with the warrant out for your arrest.”

“So you heard about that . . .”

“The whole state has by now,” Dom said dryly. “You need to stay put. Nik is going. He’s meeting with Dorman at noon.”