Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story (4 page)

I made my way down 49
^th
Street to Kensey’s. It was a couple of blocks away and the walk would be nice. I wanted to gather my thoughts about the girl on the subway.

My mind and heart felt like it was a puzzle. It was as if fate was giving me clues to figure out my happiness. Little by little, they were pulling back layers and revealing my own private heaven. If it was heaven, I didn’t know why its presence felt stronger than it ever had before.

I finally found myself approaching Kensey’s. Benvolio, my favorite cousin, was standing outside, looking at his watch.

“Hey, Ben,
w
hat
’
s up?”
I said walking up to him.

“Capulets are what
’
s up
,
”
Ben said. “They’re in the house. And they’re trouble. As usual.”

“What’s going on
?
Where’s the owner?”

“He’s in the back entertaining some uppity Capulets who are down from the Hamptons, getting their street groove on in Times Square.”

“Well, what happened?” I asked.

“I was sitting in my usual spot
,
enjoying the finest of foreign beers
,
when two of t
hose blood-sucking fools come to our table and just stared at me.”

“They just stared at you?”

“At first they did, giving me the stink eye, but then when I didn’t give them the time of day, they confronted me verbally.”

“What did they do?”
I asked, weary.

“The usual.
They threatened me and told me I was lucky I was inside the bar.
Insulted my mother’s reputation. And so on.
”

“
They know it’s a neutral place. Where do they get the nerve?” Even still, it didn’t take much for me to get irritated but the Capulets were being their usual selves. I had a long history with them. “
It doesn
’
t look like you
’
r
e
inside the bar anymore
,” I said, egging on my friend a tad.

“Exactly,
” Ben agreed.
“Just out here waiting for them to take it outside.”

The door opened and Ben added, “And by the looks of it, cousin, it appears the pricks in question
are coming out right now.”

I stepped over and stood next to my good friend and cousin
as the Capulets came out of Kensey’s
.
T
wo men came out
of the front door
dressed for death
, wearing
long
black trench coats with
long black hair to match.
I recognize
d
them both.
The goth boys were
Gregory and Samson of the
H
ouse of Capulet.
They were cousins or servants. I didn’t know exactly. I did know they were vampires. Just like many nights before, I took on my role as villain. I had to admit that even though these two jerks deserved it, my heart wasn’t as into it as it had been in times past. But nonetheless, I said,
“Look
,
cousin
.
” I laughed
.
“They didn
’
t even send us the good Capulets. They only sent their servants.”
I decided to go with my assumption that they weren’t even blood-related.

Ben looked at me and grinned. “It
’
s a shame they think so little of us that they send their house dogs to us.”

Both vampires locked eyes on us. They slowly came toward us in a wide motion.
Samson stepped forward with Gregory
, in unison, and not like random thugs
.
They were about eight feet apart from one another and ten feet away from us. They were well-trained, they were ready for anything. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from any persons associated with the House of Capulet.

They both were ready to pounce at a moment’s notice, so Benvolio decided to continue to have a little more verbal fun. “
Not so easy
is it,
now that the numb
ers are even,”
Benvolio said.

“It don
’
t ma
tter to us what the numbers are,” the vampire to the left of me said. Samson was my height, around six feet tall and he weighed about 180. I was a little less than that.
“
We
’
re going to take care of business
,
nonetheless.”

“That’s sounds like my kind of party,” a
voice yelled out from behind us. It was Mercutio
.

“
I
’
m glad you have no hard feeling
s,
that it
’
s now three
on two,
”
Mercutio said as he got in a poised werewolf-turning position where he was able to attack on a moment’s notice.

The five of us circled one another in the middle of the street.
People were peeking out of the bars and most people were trying to get as far away as they could from the developing altercation:
The Mpane="+0">ontagues with Mercutio on one side
of the street,
and the Capulets on the other.

“What kind of fight do you want?” I asked. I wasn
’
t feeling this quarrel. I wanted it to be quarrel
-
free.

“What
’
s the matter
? D
id you guys not bri
ng your picks?” Picks are what C
apulets call
ed
their silver stakes.
We called them rapiers.
We d
id
nothing the same. We even name
d
the same
exact thing
something different.

“We have our rapiers,
” Mercutio said
.
“
None of you guys worry about that.
”
Then Mercutio looked at Benvolio and me and asked
,
“You brought your weap
ons to our quarrel, right?
”

“Of
course,” I said, looking at Benvolio. Ben
voli
o looked at me and slowly shook his hea
d.

Great we were now even again. We
were 2-2 in the weapons count.

Just as we were
about
to attac
k,
Tybalt, the toughest and most vile of all Capulets
,
pulled up in a black Camaro with two
of
his buddies
. Crap!
Damn numbers game!

Now we were incredibly outn
umbe
red.
It was six on three
and only two rapiers for the three of us
. That was not good. We were sitting ducks.
“Let
’
s get out of here, boys
,”
I said to Mercutio and Benvolio.” We kn
e
w when we were
outmatched
.

The
n the three of us turned into i
would be a bloody
, out
numbered mess
. W
e all value
d
our lives a little more th
an leaving our dead carcasses out there on the street where they’d be violated and disrespected.

When we turned, or
transitioned,
B
envolio’s coat was a light brown. He was larger than Mercutio and me and he stood close to eight and a half feet tall.
Mercutio was a white wolf
and was as sleek as the night
. It fit him very well.
And…I am a white and gray werewolf. The shades of our coats didn’t matter at the present moment. What mattered was how fast our werewolf legs could run. We needed to outrun a species that had certain vampires that could turn into ravens. They were known as Mani. Mani had the ability to turn into black ravens and could fly about ten times faster than a werewolf could run. The problem is, once they caught up, they were too tiny to take on such a beast. So that is when they turn and then it gets interesting. And by interesting, I mean deadly.

Tybalt and the other C
apulets ran after us. Vampires ha
d
the ability to glide run
,
which allowed them to move almost as fast as a sprinting werewolf.
I turned and saw Tybalt
,
he had white plat
i
num
-
blonde hair
and had the build of an MMA fighter. He
was as tough as they c
a
me.

We whipped around 1st Avenue and shot a left at 33
^rd
Street and headed for the subway
.
As I looked
up ahead, I realized we weren’t going to need the safety of a subway.
I saw the most beautiful si
ght,
ever. There were at least twenty
werewolves running
toward
us. When they caught up
to us,
we all stopped and turned to confront Tybalt and the others.

Suddenly, three more
b
lack Camaros
whipped around
the corner
and mad
e their way toward us. The vehicles all screeched to stops
and abou
t sixteen more vampires rolled out of their Camaros. whiir CamaThis was becoming as serious a scuffle as we had ever had.
Here it was
…a classic Capulet and
Montague showdown. It was vampires and werewo
lves at their best
.
Sides separated by immortality and bloodline.