"He wants us to hide the first aid kit," Aurie announced, marching into the cabin.

I looked up from the map I was studying. On the off chance it was left to me to get us to safety, I wanted to know the roads. Outside, I saw Tegan and Zyr engaged in a heated conversation, and I zeroed in on Aurie's simmering anger as I refolded the map. "Everything okay?" I touched her arm.

She waved me off with a smile. "I'm fine. Let's get this over with," she replied. We checked the kit to make sure it was adequately stocked. I stuck my cellphone and battery inside for good measure as Aurie filled a beach bag with a blanket. At my quizzical look, she waggled her eyebrows. "Zyr's gonna meet us in the woods."

"Nice, but you were bothered by the prospect of getting busy in a truck?" I laughed.

"Ha-ha," she deadpanned in amusement. "Apparently he has something to tell us. This might be our last shot at privacy while Tegan is here."

Loaded down with supplies, we cut through the tree line behind the cabin, headed in the direction of the main road. There was no path; however, the deeper we went, the less foliage was underfoot. It was easy to keep a brisk pace with the help of a compass. We made our way over a carpet of pine needles, and the canopy of trees overhead blunted the sun.

I looked up after we had trekked what felt like close to an hour. Perspiration beaded my forehead. "RIP my inner outdoorsman," I huffed.

"At least you're an avid dancer. Yeah, the living Aurie would be a crawling river of sweat by now," my companion shamelessly acknowledged. "Perks of being a dead girl."

"That was a mile, right? I think this is far enough. Take note of the landmarks." I annotated the location on the map. Pointing out a decomposing tree stump, I suggested we hide the supplies inside.

"Tegan will have to park somewhere near here. She's not half bad, by the way," Aurie stated.

"If you say so. I've never met anyone quite so obsessed." I covered our stash with dead leaves and debris, and Aurie spread the blanket for whatever romantic rendezvous she had planned.

She stood up and dusted her hands on her jeans, confronting me with a shy smile. "Eh, you'll see worse in the comment section of any BTS video. Anyway, Zyr wants us to play nice, and I don't think that's such a bad idea. You need friends when we're gone."

"Now you sound like Kittie Cad," I moaned pleasantly as she stepped into my arms and kissed me. "I don't need people, Yokai. They just clutter up my headspace...My mom used to say people will only love you if it's convenient for them."

Aurie's eyebrows knit in dismay. "Harsh."

"No, honest. Think about it. Even grade school kids don't want to be friends with someone they consider unlucky. Researchers did a study once, and it turns out people gravitate to those who have it easy. Hence, the popular kids are usually the prettiest, the smartest, the richest. Well, I've never been that person."

"I'm glad you're not that person. If you were like that, you never would've taken me in," Aurie said. She studied me with soft brown eyes. "You know what I think? I think love, itself, is inconvenient. And those who have had it hardest in life know how to love hardest because they don't mind the struggle."

I looked down with a laugh. "Sometimes it takes great loss to hold tighter to whatever we have left."

"Good point. Maybe I was one of the popular kids once," she said, "but dying taught me nothing worth holding onto is easy. Today is my birthday, and I want you to make a birthday promise to me."

"That we'll have cake for dinner? Because I can make that happen, although you should've told me earlier. Zyr's pantry is woefully inadequate. Nothing but protein in there. He's like a caveman or something. Or a werewolf."

Aurie giggled. "Promise me that no matter how much of an inconvenience you think you are, you'll try for me."

"Try what, Yokai?" I blew out a breath.

She draped her arms around my neck and tilted her head. "Try harder with people. You may have felt you lacked a support system in the past, but Zyr and I don't want to leave you alone, Mys," she said around the shape of sudden unshed tears. I felt them like a lump in my own throat.

"Aurie," I whispered, clasping her hand to my lips.

"No, you have to learn to trust people. I know it's difficult experiencing other's emotions, but I'm not asking you to surround yourself with a crowd. I'm just asking you to open yourself up to one person. You can start with Tegan...and when you're ready, I want you to try to meet someone new."

I shook my head. She collected my hands and kissed each butterfly tattoo before drifting the hair from my face and looking me in the eyes. "I want you to fall in love," she murmured.

"Again?" I clarified. Her lashes swept her cheek while I tried to find the words to tell her the lightning had already struck twice. I didn't think it could happen again.

We were interrupted by the sound of someone crashing through the forest toward us. Tegan erupted from the trees with a shout, "Hey! Zyr asked me to find you."

"What's going on?" I asked.

Aurie grabbed the picnic blanket and thrust it into the beach bag. Tegan heeded the invisible shape uneasily. "There's a hurricane watch," she informed us. "We've gotta get back to the cabin. Now."

Tegan, Aurie and I stared at the weather radio while Zyr paced and frowned. I glanced out the window at a sky that was blue as ever. The digitized voice of the National Weather Service announced current location, expected directional track, barometric pressure, and a host of other data that made no sense to me. I got the gist. We might or might not be experiencing a hurricane soon.

"That settles it, Tegan. Get back to the city tonight," Zyr stated.

"Don't jump the gun. The storm track isn't set in stone," said Tegan. "We all know it's that time of year. Tropical depressions and even hurricanes churn up from the Gulf unexpectedly, but there's no need to panic until we know for sure where it's headed."

Aurie raised a hand. "I thought she was already leaving."

"She was but..." Zyr cleared his throat as my face dropped. "We decided she should stay and work on the case as long as she can. Keep in mind the Council gave us two weeks. If Darcy hasn't found us by tomorrow, I don't want to throw in the towel early.

"The worst part is," he went on, "if the weather gets bad, my cameras will likely go offline. We'll be fighting in blindfolds when or if he attacks."

"At the moment, I'm more concerned with riding it out in a log cabin in the middle of a pine forest. Do we know whether or not this building will hold up, Senpai?"

Tegan bristled at my use of an endearment. I felt it like nails raking down a chalkboard. I peered at her curiously, and my thoughts exploded with her ardent longing for Zyr. I swallowed, turning my attention back to the detective. He looked jittery about the integrity of the cabin as he dropped into the chair next to me.

"This place has held up for decades without issue. I wish we had a cellar, but we don't. We have a bathroom and mattresses." Hesitating, he clasped my hand and brought my fingers to his mouth as our eyes met. "Beloved, you should get out of here, too," he said quietly.

Beloved? I smiled as warmth suffused me, but I tried not to let the term go to my head. I knew what he was thinking. He could heal from any injury; Aurie was already a ghost. Tegan and I were the only ones in real danger if the storm came this way. Except, there wasn't a chance I'd leave them.

"We agreed we're in this together," I replied.

Tegan held up her phone. "I can't get a bar of service out here. Tell you what. Let's sleep on it. Tomorrow, I'll ride to that store where you got supplies, Ravani. I'll see what I can find out about the hurricane track. If it's bad, we might all need to find a hotel out of state and hunker down."

Zyr didn't reiterate that we weren't leaving the cabin, but it was written on his face. Tegan stood up and squared her shoulders, as if used to battling him. He shrugged noncommittally with a dry laugh. "Alright, sleep on it, Tegan. We'll talk about it again tomorrow," he said.

She grinned and dashed up to the loft. No doubt she would shower, change into more skimpy pajamas, and be ready for a family game night or some other Leave It to Beaver activity before the sun set.

Aurie foraged in the kitchen for something to cook while our guest was out of fright-range. Zyr stretched in the doorframe, studying the sky. "What are you hungry for?" she asked him. So casual. Like this was our normal. Like we could do this the rest of our lifetimes. He gave a response I didn't hear, and they settled into a rhythm as he helped her cook.

It was late in the evening, but the day had been jam-packed with preparations for a possible showdown with Darcy Cyprian. One I suspected (hoped) we might never see. We were all tired. I pulled the box containing the case file notes closer and studied the photographs and police reports that Aurie had neatly organized for us earlier.

Once we got video testimonies, everything we needed to force the Council to open an investigation would be right here. Never mind the police wanted Zyr for questioning, and Darcy Cyprian might or might not be closing in on the cabin. Not to mention there was a category three hurricane barreling toward us.

We just had to survive.