Innocent 234-Year-Old Boy

“I thought the date would be rotated?” I couldn’t help myself to ask, “Isn’t after Michael… it’s back to… Alexander?”

I felt so stupid for asking that. He had just insulted me and right then I asked another man if Alexander would take me on a date. I was a mess.

“But you just did a date with him,” Renald said casually.

“What?” I was dumbfounded. “When?” Was there a time-lapse that I did not know of? Did Alexander use his magic on me to not remember anything? Oh no… what did he do to me?

“You guys walked together around the house,” Renald said, “That was your date.”

“What?”

Renald was shocked to see my reaction. I was shocked with my raised voice too.

“I mean… how can that be a date?”

“The date doesn’t have to be specific,” Ren explained still in a casual manner, “It’s like playing chess but for four players. Each player takes a turn in capturing the Lady’s heart. We agreed to play it that way unless the Lady says otherwise.”

That was new information to me. So… I had the power to decide if I wanted to go on a ‘date’ with someone or not. I guessed when I signed the sugar baby contract, that signified as me saying I would just spend time with Alexander and the others could not approach me. Now that I think about it, that man was just so manipulative!

I shook my head. I needed to stop thinking about that obnoxious man and focused on my task at hand.

Renald sat on top of a table obediently. He was going to take off his shirt but I prevented him from it.

“Why are you taking off your shirt?” I asked.

“Father said you are going to have tests on me. Aren’t you going to put those electronic patches and–“

“No,” I answered fast, cutting him off. “We’ll start simple. I’ll draw your blood and then ask you questions. That’s it.”

Ren furrowed his brows while I was prepping for the instruments I would use. I put on gloves and the lab coat. Then I labeled the blood container before taking a syringe from one of the drawers of the table. On the label, I put in ‘Renald Davis’.

“What’s your age?” I asked.

“Two hundred and thirty-four years old.”

I blinked.

*Of course*, I thought. How could I forget that they were all supernatural creatures? I looked at Renald who was sitting in front of me. His face stared back at me with that boyish vibe he always exuded. He looked so normal, with his shirt and khaki pants. Just a normal boy. And that was what made me confused at times.

“Right,” I said while putting in the exact numbers he said on the tube.

“That’s it?” Ren seemed surprised. “I’ve starred in many medical films. I know that they usually put those things on the head to read brain waves and those patches or even go into a large tube to scan the body fully.”

“That’s TV,” I said, “In real life, research is not that exciting. I mean it is, for some people. I always find the act of digging things through to the core is fascinating. And the results, whether it’s good or bad is always an improvement for the world.”

I gestured for him to extend his hand to me. While I rolled his sleeve up, he suddenly sniffed me. Feeling conscious, I swayed back from his face, but he kept leaning into me. “Stop it,” I said.

“I can’t help it,” he said, “You smell so good.”

Then he also added, “But you also smell like Michael, which is annoying.” His lip line went taut and his eyes furrowed. He looked pissed. And by that, I meant really pissed. I think I heard a subtle growl from under his breath too.

My cheeks heated at the mention of Michael. I guessed that when you are a werewolf you always have these heightened senses.

“You… don’t like Michael?” I asked casually while putting a tourniquet on his upper arm, just above the inner side of the elbow. The instrument looked like a belt and its function was to hinder the blood flow for a while, making the veins to bulge so I could see it clearer under the skin. Normally and professionally, Renald would have to sit across the desk and the arm should be put horizontally on the table to stabilize it.

But I decided to just wing it. They were supernaturals, so I thought if I made a single mistake (punctured them in the wrong vein, could not stop the bleeding, or created a bruise) they would be able to heal themselves. Besides, observing how they recovered the damaged cells would be interesting.

“I don’t like him when he’s touching you,” he said plainly. I flicked my eyes at him. Look at this boy acting like he had a claim on me! His eyes were staring straight at me. He was serious, I knew it. But his boyish face made it seem funny to me that I chuckled lightly. Though he was older than me, somehow he still felt like a child to me.

“And why is that?”

I steadied the syringe on his skin where his vein popped up nicely, on the inner side of his elbow. Without telling him anything, I plunged the needle into the vein and started drawing his blood out.

Renald did not even flinch as I filled the syringe tube with his blood. The red liquid flowed nicely to the instrument. I half expected the blood to be blue… or black, to be honest.

“Because you are the Lady, Miss,” he said, “We will always be attracted to you. And that goes vice versa.”

I finished drawing his blood out and put an alcohol swab on the puncture wound, pressing it lightly to stop the bleeding. I gestured for Renald to put pressure on the swab by himself while I put the blood on a bigger tube I prepared before. Once done, I closed the syringe and threw it in the bin.

Raising my hand to the light, I observed the blood I had just drawn. It looked… normal. So, that was what I wrote in my journal.

“Is that part of the curse?” I asked while writing down the blood characteristics ­–which was normal but heck, I wanted to be as detail as possible. I wrote down; healthy red color, viscosity looks normal, no agglutination and clot.

“Kind of,” he answered, “We are always sexually attracted to the Lady. And you will be sexually attracted to us too.”

His words had a lot of sexual tension… If only I had not looked at his face when he said it. Because he looked so innocent for someone who just said ‘sexual’. And honestly, that turned me off a little bit.

“I’m not sexually attracted to you,” I blurted out. A few seconds later, I regretted it. Because Renald’s eyes drooped like a puppy being scolded. I blinked. Shocked with his expression. Immediately, I felt guilty and tried to make amends.

“Sorry. I meant… You’re just not the type I usually go for,” I told him, “You know. You are handsome and charismatic and… and… famous. Lots of girls love you.”

“All girls in the States adore me,” he argued, still with that sour and droopy childish face of his, “Some even said they would die for me!”

I blinked again. Taking in Renald’s tone and expression, I thought my apology was useless then. The man was overly conceited. No. The boy was overly conceited.

“Yeah well, they are them. I am me,” I explained, “I have my own preference, you know.”

“Well, what’s your preference is then?” he asked. He jumped from the desk and strolled a few feet to me. Despite his childish look, he still towered over me. “Is it someone like Michael and Father?”

“Well…,” I couldn’t possibly answer that! That was not fair. I did not know many guys in the first place. I spent my teenage years acing every subject in school and during my first year, I had to take care of my mom. My first real interaction with a man was Alexander. And that was me being his sugar baby, not his real girlfriend.

So, my experience in love? Zero. I did not know what my preference was.

“I don’t know,” I decided to be frank. Then I cleared my throat. “Anyway, sit back down.”

Surprisingly, Renald did sit down on the desk again. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that my wordings came off as an order. And that for some reason, I was their ‘Mother’ which made them have to obey my command.

If it was only Renald, I could see myself being their ‘Mother’. But there were Michael and Tony too… which made it weird for me because I made out with Michael. Isn’t it weird for a son to bang his own mother? That was not very pure and innocent, right? But since Michael was an angel… I guess it was fine? If the one who is supposed to be good does bad stuff, then… *Urgh! I don’t know where am I going with this thought!*

“So, tell me about you, Renald Davis,” I asked him. Then I added, “Please,” to make it not seemed like a command.

“What’s your life story?”

“Miss,” he called me.

“You don’t have to call me with ‘Miss’. Just call me Ari.” A second later again, I added, “Please.”

Renald nodded at that.

“Ari,” he said, “If I do good today as your research subject, will you reward me?”

He asked it so innocently –with that boyish look, that I thought what was the worse he could ask of me? Of his ‘Mother’? So, I said, “Sure.”

“You’ll do anything I want?” His eyes lit up so much that it made him look like a puppy wagging his tail. He looked rather cute that I loosened my guard around him.

“Okay.”

“Promise?”

“Promise,” I said, “Now answer my question… Please.”

“You can’t say no to me afterward!” He looked like a child securing a promise from his mother to buy him toys that I laughed at.

“Alright.”

“Okay, so here’s my life story…,” he started.

I was so wrong to ever think he was an innocent 234-year-old boy.