I would fail as a detective.

Who was in the house right now? Would they answer the door? Probably not. There was no space between the buildings, and the only way to get to the back of the house was through the home itself.

I lingered around Royal until it was time to head to headquarters, my stomach in knots knowing I was going to have to face Ren. As I passed the front of the gift shop, I saw that Jerome was behind the counter, flipping through a magazine. I hurried by in case he caught sight of me. I really owed him a cake.

Upstairs, the second floor was packed with Order members, most in groups of two or three. I lingered on the fringes, away from the door as I kept an eye out for Ren. Avoiding him would be pointless since we had to work together tonight, but I was in total delay mode.

David and Miles were at the front of the large open space, both conferring with each other quietly, and I slinked over to a window, leaning against the ledge until I caught sight of Val walking out from one of the rooms, her chin down and her curly hair falling forward, but that didn't hide the dark purplish bruise circling her right eye.

"Oh my God." I pushed off the window. "What happened?"

Val reached up, touching the skin under her eye. "I was going for a new look. What do you think?"

I gaped at her as I grabbed her arm, pulling her aside. I dropped it the moment she winced, and I realized there might be more bruises, ones I couldn't see.  "Seriously. What the hell happened, Val?"

She sighed as she folded her arms across her fuchsia colored shirt. "I ran into a fae last night that didn't want to go down easy."

"When you were with Dylan?"

"No. It was after my shift. It's not a biggie, though." She smiled, but it sort of looked painful. "I'd say you should see the bitch, but there's nothing left of her to see."

"God. Do you need anything?"

"Nope," she said, then her gaze drifted over my shoulder. Her features were pinched. "Odd."

"What?"

One dark brow rose. "Yesterday you and Ren were locking lips, and today he's standing over there, against the wall, looking like he wants to put his fist through said wall."

My stomach dropped, and I almost looked over my shoulder. Val's gaze moved back to mine, and I sighed. "It's a long story. I called you earlier."

"Yeah. Sorry." She patted my arm. "We can talk later?"

I nodded. David clapped his hands together, drawing everyone's attention. I was surprised to see his wife was here, standing at the front of the group. Compared to his grumpy ass, she looked serene.

"We have a potential emergency situation," he began, and then he launched into a rather blunt breakdown of what could happen tomorrow night. Basically a Fae Apocalypse for Dummies sort of explanation, leaving out any discussion about halflings, which was understandable. At this point, that wasn't relevant.

Needless to say, the proverbial poo hit the fan. The Order members knew all about the ancients, and apparently some had even believed that the almost fabled form of fae had been hanging around, but none of them seemed prepared for the idea that there were several in the city that could be gunning for the gate Wednesday. Neither David nor Miles mentioned the clubs, and keeping that on the down low made sense. If someone among us was working with the fae, we didn't want them to discover that we were on to them.

"The equinox happens at 9:29pm, give or a take a few minutes," David said, arms folded across his chest. "We have to be prepared for anything. Nothing may happen. Or we may be facing the ultimate fight. We cannot allow an ancient to get near the gate. Their blood will open it. No matter what, we need to keep them back."

Both gates were discussed, and I wasn't surprised when names were rattled off, half assigned to the church and half going to the house on Royal Street. Val and Ren were assigned to the house, along with me and twenty other members. One look from David warned me to keep my mouth shut about the belief that the gate at the church was destroyed. Even knowing that he wasn't ready to accept that or take a risk and leave it unguarded, I still bristled.

Nothing seemed to shock the group more than the locations being openly discussed, but at this point there was no risk because there was no doubt that the fae already knew the locations. The only small hope any of us could hold on to was that they'd go for the gate at the church, not knowing it was be destroyed. Still, even if that happened, there'd be a significant loss of life tomorrow night no matter what.

My stomach dropped as what I was thinking seemed to settle across the group. Everyone knew what was at stake.

David cleared his throat. "With all that being said, there will be no patrols tonight."

In front of us, Dylan scrubbed a hand over his jaw and cursed under his breath while I openly gawked at the sect leader.  Damn. Surprised, I glanced at Val, but she was staring off into nothing. David and Miles were giving us all the night off. Holy crap, I couldn't remember when that happened. We even patrolled on Christmas.

"If you have families, I suggest you go home and spend time with them," David continued. "If you don't have anyone special, I suggest you use tonight to find someone. Some of you will not be coming home Wednesday night."

Well, wasn't that just motivational?

The meeting was over pretty much after that, members filing out, some somber while others were gearing up for the fight. I turned to Val as I tucked a stray curl back behind my ear. "Got plans for tonight? I can't promise you'll get laid though," I joked.