After a few minutes, a vision came that I hadn’t seen before—a spray of blood. Heart hammering, I pulled back from the vision, took a deep breath, then chased it, trying to untangle it from the other threads. Finally, by concentrating on just that image, I was able to tug it to the forefront.

I struggled to pull my mind’s eye away from the blood and see the rest of the scene. The screen was very small, focusing only on the event, as usual. Blood sprayed. Then, in the next iteration, I made out a flash of motion. Then a flash of flesh. Finally, a flash of fist. That was it.

The blood came from a punch, maybe to the nose, not even a hard punch at that, the spark of chaos coming from surprise. A playful jab that made contact? Sonny and Jaz goofing around? A previous tenant? I couldn’t see either actor, but whatever the explanation, this wasn’t a truly chaotic event.

Karl walked behind me, so close his fur tickled my neck. I leaned back and he stopped, letting me rest against him. We stayed like that for a moment. Then he pressed his cold nose against the back of my neck, making me jump, and gave a growling chuckle before moving on.

“Not getting anything?” I asked.

I didn’t know whether he could understand me. He glanced my way, but that might only have been a reaction to my voice.

“Have you gone through the bathroom yet? That’s where it seems to have started, whatever it was.”

A soft grunt, and he walked that way. So he could understand me.

I started following, then heard the squeak of the front-door knob. Karl’s head swung up, ears swiveling.

I grinned. “Seems like someone’s home and we’ve all been worrying for nothing.”

The door opened. I started forward. Karl lunged and grabbed my hand in his teeth, fangs pressing into the skin, but careful not to break it. When I looked over at him, he flared his nostrils. I was about to pull away, when he flared them again, making a show of sniffing the air.

Whoever was in that hall wasn’t Jaz or Sonny. I was about to dive into the bathroom with Karl when a voice called, “Faith? Is that you?”

I pulled away from Karl. He snapped to get my attention. I shook my head and started to close the door behind me. He lunged into the opening. Then he backed up, leaving a paw in the gap as I pulled shut the door.

Guy walked in. He wore a blue paisley shirt and smelled of cologne, as if he’d been heading out to hit the clubs, take a break from worrying about Jaz and Sonny.

“It is you,” he said. “I thought I heard your voice.”