1. Desperate

Life is really sad when all you wish for is just the ordinary, basic stuff. 

Born with a golden spoon in his mouth yet cursed with an insatiable bloodlust, all President Renjith Kumar ever wanted was to be like everyone else.

An ordinary human being.

And not as an abomination that should not have been allowed to come into being.

The pros that come with being the next in line to the seat of power are still not enough to make up for the cons that came with him being cursed and oftentimes, isolated.

His feeding days are always a personal warfare.

"Don't worry, my dear. All this will be over once you find your soulmate. The priest says that you'll be free once you meet your true mate. You'll see." His mother, Lalita Kumar, kept assuring him.

And he believed it until the said soulmate came and yet ran away from him on their wedding night.

"Why am I here? And how did I even get here?" Renjith wondered once he realised that he was in his isolation dungeon, which he uses during his feeding times.

He quickly left that part of the compound and went to the main building, where he is to live with his new wife.

"Priya. Priya?" The president calls out to his newly wedded wife as he checks from one room to another, but there is no sight of her.

"Suraj." He called for his butler, who came immediately.

"Have you seen my wife?"

"Um... yes, please." Suraj stammered. "She... she's gone, sir. She left last night and said to tell you that you should not try and look for her."

"What? Why? Why would she leave right after our wedding? And why am I not aware of any of this?"

"Um... you had an episode last night and ended up attacking her, sir. It was really difficult for the guards to get you off her. Your mother was even here because of that."

"I did what? Attack her? Oh no!!!"

This sad news caused him to slump down on the three-seater sofa and stared into space.

"Does this mean that what Mother said about meeting my soulmate was all false, or is it that I am not even destined to have one?" He asked, rhetorically.

Pres. Renjith had believed then that that would be his first and last chance at love.

But in subsequent years, he had allowed his desperate self to fall for his mother's words again and had gotten married other women.

Each of these women was also said to be his soulmate, and yet they all ran away from him before the end of their wedding nights.

And by the time he realised it, he was already on his twelfth marriage which has also just met the same fate as the others.

"Hmm." Renjith sighed.

Now, he wonders, that as the next CEO of their family's Business Empire, will his clan and country accept a bloodthirsty president like him?

And will he die without ever knowing what real love feels like?

***

"Mr. Supt. Do you have anything for me?" Mrs. Lalita Kumar asked as soon as she entered and joined the visitors at her son's main private medical facility.

In the room were three scary-looking prison inmates in their uniforms seated across the table, facing the jail superintendent.

"Yes, Ma'am." The jail superintendent replied and offered a seat to her.

"These ones are scheduled to be hanged within two to four days' time. I've already had them go through the prepared documents." He said.

He then placed some documents before the queen, who also went through them.

"And do you all agree to the stipulated terms?" Lalita addressed the three death-row criminals.

"Yes, Ma'am." They said and nodded in response.

"Then sign the NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement), and your families will receive the compensations as stipulated herein." Mrs. Lalita stated.

The three convicts did as told, although a bit hesitantly.

"Take this one to him first." She said to the guards and pointed to one of the inmates after the superintendent left.

Two guards grabbed the said death-row inmate and led him into the secret dungeon.

*

The eyes of a beast-like, stoutly built man glowed crimson red as someone got thrown into his sanctuary.

In a swift propulsive movement, he instinctively pounced on the unknown intruder and sunk his claws into his shoulders to hold him into position before sinking his elongated fangs into his neck to quench his bloodlust.

But...

"Aaarrrggghhh!" The red-eyed monster quickly releases his prey as he groans, for an indescribable pain surges through his entire body.

He slumped down on the hard floor as he felt weaker by the second.

"Leave! Now!!!" He growled.

The poor criminal did not need to be told twice. He quickly took to his heels and bolted out of the place.

(I guess he wasn't ready to die after all, now that he was facing certain death).

*

"He refuses to feed Ma'am. We have sent all three men to him, but he's sent each one of them back." A guard reported.

"What?! Why? I mean, why would Renjith do that? Does he want to die?" Lalita queried rhetorically.

She then gestured with her hand for the guard to leave.

"Hema!" She called for her head servant.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Tell Dr. Jayaraman to meet with me as soon as possible."

"Yes, please."

"Laila, you witch. See what you've cost me. But your deception will never win over me or my son. Just wait and see. I'll do whatever I can to bring him out of your curse and misery." Lalita said to herself after dismissing her head servant.

***************************

"Stop staring, Selvan. You're going to bore a hole into the poor guy's face." Vasant whispered into his stepbrother's ear.

Selvan shyly turned his eyes away to stare at his own feet instead. His ears were reddish.

"Poor guy, you said? Don't you know who he is?" Anisha, Selvan's closest friend, asked.

Vasant has come to pick them up so they'll all leave campus for the school break.

"That's just a figure of speech, mademoiselle. And why should I even care about who that is?" Vasant retorted.

"Well, since you guys never asked, I'll tell you two anyway." Anisha said.

Selvan's ears perked up.

Anisha lowered her voice as she continued. "That, my dear friends, is the last-born son of the chairman of the Kumar Business Empire. He's called Reyan Kumar and is of the same age as Selvan and me.

I heard that he is very athletic and takes only the first place in all the categories that he participates in during the interschool games. It's such a pity that he never attends any of the school parties and programs except for sports and games. Tch."

"Hmm. And, so?" Vasant teased.

"So soak my garri for me. You're annoying!" Anisha hits Vasant and then runs off to where their car was parked.

Selvan occasionally stole glances at the guy when he thought that no one was looking.

'So his name is Reyan. Reyan Kumar.' He smiled to himself as his stepbrother opened the car door for him at the front.

"Selvan, are you going to go through with your plan to go and see your mother this vacation? Would you want me to take you there?" Vasant asked.

"Yes. But I want to go alone."

"Do you think that she'll recognise you?" Anisha asked.

Selvan shrugged his shoulders. "From her photos, I look just like her, so I believe that she would. Or?"

"Yeah. Okay. But boy, I still find it hard to believe that your real mother is actress Aiesha. Wow! Your father has good tast... ouch! Vasant, why did you pinch me?"

"Hehe he..." Selvan laughed as the two continued with their bickering all the way home.