Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story (23 page)

“I
’
m sorry,
D
ad. 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, pleas
e reconsider. If you go with us, we
can at least visi
t you in prison. This other way, t
here is a good chance we won
’
t ever see you again.
”

“Mom, I love you. But I have to do this my way
. Y
ou 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 d
id
wish I could say goodbye to Benvolio.
He was now my closest friend, now that Mercutio was dead.
But I c
ouldn’
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 dust
y
tr
ail 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.
W
e 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 wor
n
a couple
of
weeks earlier. Looking at the dress now
, it
was not the same as it look
ed on that night. Instead, her d
ress was ripped up the side a
nd was covered in dirt. I turned to Benvolio and yelled,
“W
hat 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 int
o. 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 sa
mple 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 you
r senses and leave this blood-sucking whore
.
”

“That is where you
’
r
e
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
y
ou.”

“
Please, d
on
’
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 dri
p 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 h
awk, 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 form, 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 bad
ly
to be a Montague. I ha
d
no idea why, but he did. So much so
, that
he became like us in our immortality.

A
pos was
a pretty eccentric guy. He was an A
frican American with a big giant
A
fro
and a surreal understanding of alchemy and traditional medicine, as well as the mystical healing arts.
He dressed like a hippie and definitely liked t
o frequently partake of the herb known as M
ar
y J
ane.

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

I hopped off and ran down a couple streets then up the biggest flight of stairs I ha
d
ever seen
to the entrance of the building
.
Apos had a real nice apartment. It was on the 10
^th
floor of his nice apartment building.
We both tr
ansitioned as we approached the
door
man
.
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.