Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story Read online

  The only answer to that question was that I was going to have to enter the house from a room where I would expose no Capulet to danger from the sun, especially, not Juliet.

  I decided that my best move would be the front door. Surely, no one would be near the front door at 11:00 o’clock in the morning? At this hour, they must be safely tucked into their beds, safe from any chance of sunlight exposure.

  So, the front door was the right play. I would have normally tried to keep myself out of sight from the outside neighborhood. But I knew I was in a vampire community, and the majority of them were asleep, avoiding the sunlight. Even if they saw me, what could they do? Come outside?

  I hopped down to the ground and I walked up slowly to the giant black house. I first checked the front door to see if it would be as easy as opening the front door. I shook the door handle and no luck there, it was clearly locked. It was locked securely. It was so tight of a lock that I figured it was probably double-bolted.

  The front door wasn’t budging. Aside from tearing it down, I had no other solution to it. At the side of the house, I noticed a smaller room poking out from the side of the house. I walked over and peeked in the window. It was the laundry room. I could see that there was a laundry chute that dropped its way into the laundry room. So, if I could get in and climb up the laundry chute to the very top. I should land on Juliet’s floor and be pretty snd he afe and out of harm’s way.

  The laundry room wasn’t as nearly as secure as the front door. The only way into the house from the laundry room was through the laundry chute. So, they just figured they were safe. They didn’t plan on a werewolf breaking in and easily scooting himself up a laundry chute.

  I was wondering if the laundry room was as secure as the front door. I jiggled it. I was able to get the laundry door open by jiggling it loose. Sometimes, it is that easy.

  I slipped unseen into the laundry room. The room had recently been used. I could smell the scent of recently used laundry detergent. I went to the laundry chute. I opened up the flap to the laundry chute and saw that I could barely fit in the tunnel. I sucked in my gut and made my way into the chute. I knew I had to watch it; I can get claustrophobic if I allowed myself to. And there wasn’t a tighter space that I had ever been in than the one I was in at the present moment.

  But, nevertheless, I scooted and climbed up the chute. It was a tight, painful journey that took close to a half an hour, but I eventually got to the top. I could see glimpses of light from the door on the top floor. As I got closer and closer to the light, I realized I could hear someone right outside the top floor laundry-chute door. It sounded like someone humming or singing.

  It was her maid. She was obviously back from visiting her family. Crap! It sounded like she was getting ready to open the laundry chute door.

  Then, I heard the door open. I looked up and kept my mouth shut and stayed absolutely quiet. I could see her sorting through which clothes to throw down the laundry chute.

  Then, one by one, she dropped what appeared to be panties and bras on my head. I couldn’t tell if they were smaller or larger garments because of how they landed on my head. But, I found out quickly when the largest pair of women’s panties fell on top of my head. Engulfing it.

  They were either the maid’s panties or Lady Capulet’s. Both were larger women. My head was completely covered by the biggest pair of woman’s panties known to man. It was as if I was being suffocated by my own turban.

  Eventually, the door shut and the humming was gone. I could hear noise of the floor below me, the faint sounds of vacuuming and the chatter of servants, but I was sure that Martha had left the top floor. I scooted up, nearly suffocating myself on the pair of humongous panties. That were now going up my nostrils. I wiggled my head free and the gigantic granny panties fell below me. Are you kidding me? I was almost taken out by a pair of underwear?

  Eventually, I scooted myself to the very top and stuck my head out of the chute door and gasped for fresh air. I pulled myself out and hit the ground way too hard. When I hit, I rattled the house. Crap!

  raize="+0">I saw Juliet’s room from the hallway and hurried to it and opened the door and slipped in. Juliet was asleep in her bed and I didn’t want to scare her. She must be hyper-aware of her surroundings, considering all she’d been through. So, I decided to cough a little and try to get her attention. After about six healthy coughs, she finally opened her eyes, as if from a deep sleep. She looked over at me with startled eyes and I quickly put my hand over her mouth and shushed her. “It’s me,” I said in a loud whisper.

  “You shouldn’t be here. It is extremely unsafe for you to be in here. My father and my cousins all want you dead on sight.”

  “Juliet, let’s leave. Today, right now. Let’s get far away from here. I have our twenty thousand dollars in the bank. Let’s take the next flight to Los Angeles.”

  “Are you being serious?”

  “Yes. It’s now or never. The farther we are from both families, the better.”

  “I want to go. What do we do?” Juliet looked at me and I knew she was ready.

  “You need to get what you need and we need to go to JFK Airport as soon as possible,” I said with a sense of urgency.

  “Romeo, hold on. We need to think this through clearly.” Juliet patted her bed and I came over and sat down. She was in deep thought, and then she said. “You need to leave and go to the bank while I put together a small of bag of absolutes. I think we need to leave here separately and meet somewhere else.”

  “Are you sure? Now that I’m here, I don’t we, "> leavant to leave you.”

  “It makes the most sense,” Juliet said. “I don’t want to leave until it’s dark anyway. We need to meet some place away from both of our houses. Somewhere in the neutral zone.”

  “We can’t tell anybody,” I said.

  She nodded. “No one can know where we are going. Not one person. Not Friar Laurence, not Martha, No one.”

  “Not one person can know that we left together,” I said, agreeing with Juliet.

  “We need to meet at a safe place.”

  “There is one place safe near the place where this all went down. It’s about five hundred feet to the left of the stage. It is a safe area and pretty hidden. My friends and I meet there all the time. Meet me there at 8:00 p.m., exactly 30 minutes after it gets dark. That will give you plenty of time to get over there; only take enough that you can get by on. You don’t want to look conspicuous, leaving the community with a bunch of luggage. We’re traveling light.”

  Juliet looked at me with her eyes wide open. “We are really going to do this? You and I. Romeo and Juliet.”

  I smiled at Juliet and also said, “Romeo and Juliet are going to spend the rest of their lives together, that’s for damn sure.” I kissed Juliet and said, “I better leave the same way I came in.”

  “How did you get in the house the first time?” Juliet asked.

  “That is on a need-to-know basis. Ansiz+0">td I think it’s better that you don’t know,” I said, winking at her. With that, I kissed Ju

  liet one last time and exited her room and made my way to the laundry chute. As I hopped in the chute, my head was still poking out and I saw Juliet by her door, looking at me.

  She smiled at me and just shook her head. She acted like she wasn’t impressed at my escape route. I smiled back at her and slid down the chute.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I went to the bank and managed to get most of my money withdrawn. Some of the money was tied up in stocks and I wasn’t able to get it the same day.

  I had never had so much money on my person. It was kind of scary, knowing that if most people knew how much money I had on me, they would try to kill me for it. Those were the times we lived in.

  It was getting close to 6:00 o’clock and I made my way back to the Bronx to where I was staying with Friar John. When I got there, I was shocked to see who was there. It was my mother and father. It had been days since I’d seen them. They had bo
th also witnessed my killing of Tybalt.

  “Father,” I said, as I entered Friar John’s home. My father and mother, Lord and Lady Montague, were sitting on the couch, looking as if they were ready to escort me somewhere. They both stood up when they saw me and came over to siz+0dy to greet me with a giant hug.

  “You need to come home with us, Romeo,” My father said. “You are wanted by the police, the Capulets, but you are also wanted by Ruling House of Verona.”

  “The Prince?” I asked.

  “Son,” my mom said. “Paris himself is looking for you. It said on the news that you were wanted, dead or alive.”

  “Dead or alive? By everyone?” I asked.

  “Yes, son,” my father said. “Your run is over. It’s time to turn yourself in.”

  “Dad, I will get life in immortal prison. Those places are hell and you know that.”

  “I know, son. Maybe we can throw ourselves on the mercy of the court and they will give you a lighter sentence. Everyone saw Tybalt kill Mercutio, seconds before you killed him. You can claim ‘Stand Your Ground.’ You could say he had just killed your best friend and you weren’t sure if he was going to kill you, so you did the only thing you could do to protect yourself.”

  I looked at my poor distraught father, who was trying so hard to get me to come inside the law. My father was practical. His hatred for the Capulets stayed inside the laws of both human and immortal by-laws. As long as he was inside their boundaries, his attitude had always been pretty much anything goes. But killing someone on a stage in front of all the most important people in both families wasn’t exactly inside any rule book. Killing is the worst crime you could do in any society and ours was no different. This high nt.ize="+crime was punished with the most severe penalties. My father wanted no part of that. So much so, that he was willing to escort his own son to the police station.

  “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m not going.”

  “Son, please!” my dad pleaded.

  “No, Father. I’m sorry, Mother, but I’m not going. Look, no one needs to know you were here and that you saw me. You should leave. Just know that I’m going to be in a safe place far away from here. This will be the last time you’ll see me.”

  My mom looked at me with tears in her eyes. “Oh, Romeo, please reconsider. If you go with us, we can at least visit you in prison. This other way, there is a good chance we won’t ever see you again.”

  “Mom, I love you. But I have to do this my way. You both need to leave.” I opened the door and escorted them to a taxi. I went back into the apartment and packed up a couple of things. I knew Juliet and I were going to be starting a new beginning. So, I just took the necessities.

  This was it. I had said my goodbyes to the two people I wanted to the most. I did wish I could say goodbye to Benvolio. He was now my closest friend, now that Mercutio was dead. But I couldn’t risk it.

  I took a taxi to Central Park. The whole way there, I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t believe I was about to start my life with Juliet.

  I got dropped off right in front of the entrance to Central Park that was the closest to where I asked Juliet to meet me. I paid the guy and jumped out and mapednt>

  I made my way past a dusty trail around a couple of hot dog stands. Then I made my way past the trail that led up to where I was going. I heard a commotion in the area where I had asked Juliet to meet me. I heard a woman scream. I had a horrifying feeling that it was Juliet. I ran up, away and around the corner to the spot.

  There was a series of trees and then the statue. Right below the statue was the most horrifying thing I had ever seen in my life. They had pinned Juliet on the ground. Benvolio was the one on top of her as she screamed. He groped her body. She was wearing a white dress and it was completely covered in mud and dirt. While my other cousins were standing around cheering.

  Once again, I snapped. I turned into my werewolf form and ran and leaped into Benvolio, knocking him over like he was a bowling pin.

  He immediately turned into his werewolf form on contact. As we rolled, I punched him in the face as hard as I could. We rolled, scratching and clawing at each other. Finally, we separated and we both turned back to our human form.

  I turned around and saw Juliet wearing the beautiful white dress she had worn a couple of weeks earlier. Looking at the dress now, it was not the same as it looked on that night. Instead, her dress was ripped up the side and was covered in dirt. I turned to Benvolio and yelled, “What the hell were you doing?!”

  Benvolio looked at me and snickered. “What do you think I was doing, cousin? I was getting a taste of some of that glorious honey that you have been dipping into. I figured if it made you that insane, then I wanted to sample the goods.”

  I was horrified. I wanted to kill him. “Did you sample the goods?” I yelled. I then turned and ran over to Juliet on the ground. Benvolio looked on.

  I shouted, “Did you violate her on any level?”

  “Aside from a little body rub, you stopped it from getting too far. Not to say that we won’t all want to try again later on when you finally come to your senses and leave this blood-sucking whore.”

  “That is where you’re wrong, Ben. You will never have the opportunity to hurt her again. I will kill you in your sleep, if you ever lay a hand on her again.”

  “The hell you will!” Benvolio leaped on me, holding a rapier. My own cousin was attacking me with a silver stake?! I had had enough. I kicked the rapier out of his hand and it went flying about two feet in front of where Juliet was still lying. Benvolio ran and grabbed it and leaped onto Juliet and stabbed her in her neck and shoulder. The knife only went halfway in her neck, because I leaped onto the knife and prevented it from going completely through. I pulled the knife out and everyone had run off, including Benvolio.

  I looked down and Juliet was coughing blood. The stab wound started in from the front right shoulder and went as deep as about a third of her way into her neck. My heart ached looking at Juliet. I said, “Juliet, you’re going to be okay. It didn’t completely go through. Hold on, baby, keep breathing.”

  Juliet struggled and said, “Thank you.”

  “Please, don’t say thank you. I don’t deserve any thanks. I got here too late and I should have draped your body so he couldn’t attack you. I’m so sorry I let you down, Juliet.

  Tears began to drip from Juliet’s eyes. She tried to speak. But she couldn’t. She coughed and struggled to speak.

  “Juliet, please, you don’t have to speak,” I said.

  She continued anyway through the pain, “You didn’t know, Romeo.” The she coughed and then she looked up at me and said. “I love you, Romeo.”

  I looked at her as she was lying in her own vampire blood. “Juliet,” I said. “I love you more than life itself. You’re going to be okay, I promise. I’m going to take you away from here. I have a friend who isn’t tooho d. far away.” I took off my shirt and placed it on her neck to try and stop the bleeding. I looked down at Juliet and asked, “What will happen if you turn into the hawk?”

  “I’d be a hawk with a hole in her neck,”

  she coughed out.

  “You need to turn, Juliet. As the hawk, you will bleed less because your body will be smaller.”

  Juliet nodded. So, right there in the middle of Central Park, Juliet turned into the red hawk and I ran as fast as I could to the nearest subway, holding the wounded bird in my arms.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I needed to go to a neutral zone. I knew a guy on the Upper West Side. He was Mercutio’s mentor. His name was Apos, short for Apothecary. Apos taught Mercutio everything he knew about being a warlock.

  As I made my way up the subway stairs, holding a wounded red raven in my shirt, I’m sure that people thought I was just some animal lover who was trying to save a bird on the subway. They must have seen the love in my eyes that I had for this bird and just left me alone. Plus, I was shirtless, dirty, and bloodied. Her blood.

  I whispered to Juliet, in her hawk fo
rm, exactly what we were doing. “I have an acquaintance who trained Mercutio to be a warlock. He lives in the Upper West Side, and he is about one of the only guys I know I can trust. He’s not on either side. He’s a warlock who has no ties to either family.”

  I thought about Mercutio. He also shouldn’t have been on either side. But he was so desperate to belong to something. He wanted so badly to be a Montague. I had no idea why, but he did. So much so, that he became like us in our immortality.

  Apos was a pretty eccentric guy. He was an African American with a big giant Afro and a surreal understanding of alchemy and traditional medicine, as well as the mystical healing arts. He dressed like a hippie and definitely liked to frequently partake of the herb known as Mary Jane.

  He lived on West 67th Street, right behind Juilliard School. I had my sweet, very injured Juliet clutched to the top of my chest for dear life. I kept my finger on her neck to stop the bleeding. Poor Juliet was still holding on for dear life.

  I hopped off and ran down a couple streets then up the biggest flight of stairs I had ever seen to the entrance of the building. Apos had a real nice apartment. It was on the 10th floor of his nice apartment building. We both transitioned as we approached the doorman. Luckily, he didn’t look up at us and was far more interested in his bagel and coffee. He let us in and I took Juliet up to the tenth floor. It was a nice hodgepodge apartment building. We exited the elevator and Apos’s apartment was at the end of the hallway, facing the street. I knocked loudly on his door.

  “Who the hell is it?” Apos yelled from inside the apartment.

  “It’s Romeo. I’m Mercutio’s good friend. I mean, I was his really good friend. I need your help.”

  I wasn’t sure if he would remember me. I had met him quite a few times but when a guy had as much recreational herb fun as Apos, they sometimes needed a little more clarification than the average person. I didn’ more cl>t have time to lose, so I cut to the chase.