Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story (5 page)

As we faced off, I didn
’
t feel like this was a showdown
that
I wanted to have. In my heart, I felt as if I
was
done with this. I
was done with their senseless fighting
and quarrels.
I know this was going to get
real
ugly
real fast and thank God,
I heard the wonderful sirens of the V
erona police
.
Normally, I despise the sound of a siren—sometimes it makes me howl but not in a good way, because it hurts my ears—but tonight, it was great timing.

Six police cars came down
the street led by the most famous
T
own
C
ar i
n the city of Verona. It was P
r
ince Escalus and his second-in-command, Count Paris. Both were kinsmen
of Mercutio. Mercutio always had a cu
n
ning
way of disappearing whenever the P
rince
and his piper
appeared. We
didn’t
want to put him on blast to his family, so we ha
d
no problem with him
inconspicuously
walking away.

Prince
Escalus
stepped out
of his Town Car with
Paris by his side. Pa
ris,
a handsome kid with light brown hair
,
look
ed
like
a model. I hated guys like him
.
Good looks and a thug.

The Prince had a more worn
-
down appearance. He clean
ed
up nice when he ha
d
to, but when he patrol
led
the streets
,
h
e d
idn’t
care
if he looked rough
. His appeara
nce almost gave off the aura of an old-
time detective
from the 20
^th
century, a hard-boiled beat cop and tough as nails
.

With his button
-
down trench coat, brown slacks, and pa
tent-
leather shoes
, t
he Prince walked up
and down the area
that separated the vampires from the werewolves.
He stared at each of us with this superior smirk.
“My immortals,” he said
.

“We
’
re not your immortals!”
Tybalt yelled
back
at
him
. “We are owned by no one
.
E
specially
not
a wizard.”

“It’s warlock, son,”
Prince
Escalus
said. “
Not ‘wizard.’ But
I wouldn
’
t expect a man who has a
fifth-grade education to know the difference.
May I continue?
”

Very nice. The Prince went right after Tybalt.
Didn
’
t give him any wiggle room.

“Of course
,
Prince,
”
I yelled out.
“Please go on?”
The Prince
stopped in his tracks,
and
then
he
walked over to me
. He
looked me up and down
,
and
then shoo
k his head.
“And you, you think you’re any better with your fleas and bad breath?”

“Some folks like the company of those who attract fleas,” I said, scratching myself for comic effect. Anything to defuse this situation.

“Don’t I know it. My kinsman, Mercutio, has caused me to be a tad more tolerant toward you folks.”

“Us
folks
?
Folks?
Wow. Okay, great Prince. I hope to see your tolerance continue in this great age of enlightenment.”

“Where is that kinsman
of mine?
I heard he was here. He knows better than to get involved in one of your family quarrels.
”

“This isn’t his quarrel. He knows that,
” I said
,
protecting my friend’s cover.
“He
is neither Montague nor Capulet
.”

“That may be so,” the Prince said, looking me over.
“
But what
’
s that phrase
? D
ogs
of a feather flock together?
”

“We h
aven
’
t seen him,
”
Benvolio
said, jumping in
.

“Mus
t we go through this every time?
”
t
he Prince said in his higher
-
than
-
a
-
normal man
’
s voice and with a touch
of
femininity. The Prince was his own man
,
that was for sure.

“
Men, all I
’
m going to say is
that I’m fed up with this constant quarreling
. You need more to fight about other than
the fact that
this family chose to be o
f the canine set, and this family
prefers a blood cocktail even once in a while.”

Tybalt stepped up and yelled, “You have it all wrong, Prince Escalus.
Trust me when I tell you I hate each of them for more
than
ont siz"> the reason they howl at the moon. I hate the
ir
existence. Yes
,
I hate them for being werewolves, but I hate them more just because they were born
at all
.”

Benvolio look
ed
at me and said
, “That guy doesn’t mess around
.”

I’d say that I think Tybalt had enough hate in his heart to rival everyone else’s combined. His hate went back many years. He had seen and been a part of a lot of ugly stuff, back in the day. Tybalt must have been over 100 years old in human years. His body was still a rugged eighteen-year-old teen in his prime. But Tybalt wore his heart on his sleeve. Much like our very own Mercutio. It was actually pretty good that Mercutio had slipped out, otherwise, he and Tybalt would be having a scream off. But then again, we still had Benvolio.

“It’s simple,” he
called out. “They hate us and we hate them. We don
’
t need much more of a reason than that.”

I yelled out in agreement in support of my cousin’s words, but I knew I was an imposter. I
nternally
, I knew this hate mentality was no longer an option for me
. All of this hate
was
on the surface. I hate
d
it. I hated the hate that had been in my heart
for
so lo
ng. Hate was an exhausting emotion. It dragged me down. It kept me from experiencing joy. I looked at all of the
vampire men
who stood before and felt no hate for any of them.

The Prince found a
D
umpster that had a lid on it and had Paris help him on top of it. He stood on top of this dark green
D
ump
ster and finished
his speech as if he w
as
running for office. He was already the most powerful man in Ve
r
ona, I really didn
’
t understand why he cared
to get on a soapbox to make a point
. I highly doubt
ed
that
any of his carin
g came out of the price of empathy. “Men of Ver
ona,
”
he said. “For that is what we all are.
Yes, w
e have chose
n
different paths and different
expressions in
<
our immortality
or lack thereof
. But
,
the one thing each of us ha
s
in common is that we all are men. And as men
, I am asking, man-to-
man
,
for peace.”

No one responded for a brief moment and then B
envolio called out,
“
Ain
’
t going to happen
,
C
hief!
Ain’t nobody here who wants to be the first one to wuss out.”

Then everyone on both sides laughed
. It was true.

“Why not? What good does it do you to hate each other so much?”

“The two easiest emotions to have, Prince,” Tybalt said, “are love and hate. We decided to not waste love on them, so we chose hate.”

“Trust me,” Benvolio yelled, “We choose to hate you right back.”

“Very good then, let’s just agree to hate one another,” Tybalt said. “See, Prince, we can agree on something.”

“Well, let’s agree that you two go back to your separate sides of the city and call it an evening.”