The Descendent Protectors

Chapter Forty

By early noon the next day, Ariel, Xavier and I arrived at the state of Indiana. Vincent and Seth both patiently awaited us outside the wide gates of the airport, chatting animatedly among each other as we stepped outside into the chilly breeze. As if he sensed our presence, Vincent had stopped the conversation amid his talking and turned around to greet us as we approached him from behind.

Xavier had tried to convince Ariel and I to stay at his house, generously offering to take us to trips to the city where we could furniture shop until our apartment is ready to move into, but we had to decline since we already planned to stay at Seth's apartment, and it also felt invasive because it was his pack's home.

Then we departed there, with promises of seeing each other the next day. As soon as we had arrived at Seth's apartment, Ariel and I tossed everything aside and rushed to the room we were to share during our stay. Too jet lagged from the constant travels to do anything else, we had changed into cozy pyjamas and within minutes hopped onto the large king-sized bed, losing both our consciousness within seconds as we fell into a deep, much-needed slumber.

Later that night I woke up with a rumbling stomach. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Ariel to be deep asleep, soft snores escaping her parted lips. Gently, I pulled the covers off of my body and my feet fell to the floor. I hopped off the bed and trodged towards the door, entering the small hallway and reaching for a door I faintly remembered to be the bathroom.

True to my gut instinct, it was.

I washed my face with cold water, suddenly feeling refreshed, and exited the bathroom to stalk towards the open living-room.

Faintly, I heard the sound of cheerful whistling. Straining my ear to detect the source better, I followed to where it led me - Seth's open bedroom door. I knocked once out of respect to his privacy, but he didn't answer, and instead continued humming and whistling joyfully. I walked inside the bedroom, my eyes searching along the place.

"Seth?" I called out.

"In here!"

I followed the source of his voice, which led to the bathroom. Pushing the open door further apart, I sneaked a glance inside to see Seth kneeling on the floor by his filled bathtub, his hands working at something.

"Scrubba dub dub, there's a Kitty in my tub," he sang in a joyful tone.

Stepping further inside I glanced over his shoulder with great curiosity, unaware that he'd adopted a cat. When my eyes landed on the creature in the tub, I let out an involuntary shriek, jumping a couple steps away.

"Seth! What the Hell is that?!"

He looked over his shoulder at me, his eyebrows lowering into a frown. Standing upright, he reached out for a towel and began wrapping it around the animal, drying its fur.

"Kitty," he answered.

"Are you kidding me? That's no cat! That's a freaking possum!"

"Yeah," he said in a duh tone. "Whose name is Kitty."

My eyes widened as large as saucers, inable to believe the man standing in front of me as he continued to scrub the possum with the towel, drying it of the bath water.

"When I found him I thought he was a cat. He responded to my 'here, kitty kitty', so I decided that suited him as a name." He explained so nonchalantly as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

I glanced between him and the possum in disbelief. "You're mad," I whispered, frightened by the creature screeching as it moved around the towel in Seth's arms.