by H. T. Night
“You found me?” she said, both surprised and pleased.
“It wasn’t that hard. I took a taxi and followed you and once in the gate, I was incognito.”
“How so?”
“I hung on the side of your limousine in stealth mode. Mostly white fur on a white limo.”
“That is very impressive,” Juliet smiled at me and my heart melted. I kept staring at her. “Why do you keep doing that? Staring,” Juliet asked.
“I have never seen anyone so beautiful. I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of your beauty, and that’s the truth. It’s not a line. It is exactly how I think and I promise you this is the first time I have ever said it to anyone.”
“Okay, then. I believe you. You think I’m beautiful.” Then Juliet held her breath and quietly whispered in my ear, “Good answer. That was probably the best answer I could have heard.”
“Do you know you’re beautiful?” I said.
“Am I?” she asked.
“Of course you are.”
“Sometimes, I don’t know.” She was being honest. I couldn’t believe someone this beautiful could feel insecure, but it was apparent that she did.
“How could you ever feel that way?” I asked.
“Life has a funny way of keeping us humble. With me, all it would take is for a boy never giving me a second look.”
“I can’t imagine anyone not giving you a second look,” I said.
“I don’t know. I saw him from the inside of his dreadful butcher shop job. No matter how many days in a row I stood outside watching him walk by the window, he never once looked in my direction.”
I looked at Juliet and it was hard for me to believe she really did that. I wanted to believe it, but I was scared that she was just messing around. “Did you really do that?” I asked, with far more vulnerability than I would have liked.
“Yes, Romeo. It is true.” Juliet seemed embarrassed. “I hunted you down before you hunted me down. But you didn’t even look my way. Not once.”
I didn’t want her to feel that way. So, I told her what was in my heart. “I knew you were there. I felt you near me,” I said. “I couldn’t see for whatever reason, but I felt your presence. I had a joy in my heart that was unexplained until I saw your face. Since then, I have never felt more alive. I knew in my heart of hearts that something magical was about to happen.”
“You have?” Juliet.
“Yes, I have,” I said.
Juliet stared at me with tears dripping from her eyes. “You see I have always had this dream. It’s the most perfect place in the world.”
“It filled with love,” I said.
“Yes, and the sky is so blue…”
“That it looks like something you might see on a birthday cake,” I said, finishing her sentence. Then I added, “You can’t explain it, but there is a peace all throughout your body…”
“And you know it is exactly where you were always meant to be.” Juliet had now finished my sentence. Juliet and I had had the same reoccurring dream.
“This is too much. Never in my wildest dreams did I realize someone was experiencing what I was experiencing.”
“That they were seeing the world exactly how you see it.”
“Appreciating the same beauty and same essence that makes life so wonderful.” I finished my statement and just stared at Juliet, speechless.
“Do you really believe all those things, Romeo?”
“I do.” I said. I looked into Juliet’s amazing brown eyes and put it all out there. “Do you? Do you see the world the same way? Have you been dying inside, knowing that something was coming that was bigger than anything you had ever been a part of? Juliet, do you believe this about me?”
Juliet was quiet and said, “I knew it last week.”
I wrapped my arms around Juliet’s body and held her. Juliet fell into my arms and nestled her head into my chest. I was still in my Dracula get-up. But my hair was no longer slicked back It was probably a long wet mess.
Then it began to sprinkle. I placed Juliet inside the house while I remained out in the rain.
“You’re getting wet,” she said.
“I don’t care.” The rain came down harder and was hitting the back of my body.
“Then I don’t care either.” Juliet hopped outside as the rain fell on us. She jumped in my arms, and I give her a long passionate kiss. “What is happening to us?” Juliet asked.
“I think we’re falling in love,” I said, “as a matter of fact.”
“How is that possible? We only talked for the first time a couple of hours ago?”
“Our hearts know what they want. Why waste all that time trying to figure out if the person is that right one when you just know it.”
Juliet looked up at me and said “I do know it.” Juliet then grabbed my face and gave me a long, slow, wet kiss that nearly knocked the Dracula cape off my body.
“Juliet! Juliet! Where are you?” A woman yelled from inside her room.
Juliet’s back stiffened. “Oh, drat!”
“Who is that?” I asked.
“That is Martha,” Juliet said.
“Who is she?” I asked.
“She is one of our helpers.”
“A servant?”
“A helper,” Juliet said, correcting me. “You better go.”
“Should I?” I asked. I didn’t want to leave.
“Yes, Martha will tell my father if I’m out on the balcony too long,” Juliet whispered. Then she raised her voice and said, “I’m out on the balcony!” Then Juliet looked at me and said, “Go!”
“Not yet!” I said turning into my werewolf form and diving under the balcony, holding myself up by the beam to stay clear from Martha’s discovery.
“What are you doing out here?” Martha asked Juliet, as she opened the door.
“I am just admiring the moon,” Juliet said.
“It is too cold for you to be out here.”
“If I put a jacket on, may I stay out here five more minutes?”
“Go put a jacket on and you only have two minutes,” Martha answered.
“Sounds good.” Then Juliet and Martha went inside to get Juliet a jacket. A minute later, Juliet came back out and said, “Romeo, Romeo, are you still there?”
I swung up and landed on all fours, then quickly turned to my human form. “I’m here.”
“I only have two minutes,” Juliet said.
“I heard.”
“Will you come back?” Juliet asked.
“When?”
“This time tomorrow.” Juliet grabbed my hands and held them in hers at the front of her body.
“I’ont="+0">ll come back this time tomorrow every day for the rest of my life.” I brought Juliet’s hand to my face and kissed both hands individually.
“You will?” Juliet asked staring deep into my eyes.
“Yes, I will.”
“I believe you.” Juliet put her head in my chest and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Juliet?” I said.
“What?” Juliet looked up at me.
“Thank you,” I said as honestly as I could.
“Thank you? Thank you for what?”
I looked down at this beautiful woman and said, “Thank you for being alive. Thank you for growing into the woman that you are now. Thank you for finding me. ”
“Romeo…thank you for finding me.”
“The pleasure is all mine.” I looked into Juliet’s eyes and said, “I will come back to see you.”
“Tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night,” I answered. Then I gave Juliet a long, deep, honest kiss. The kiss was goodbye, but it was also a celebration. I didn’t want to leave. Everything about her made me a believer in true love. She was all that I wanted in this mad world. As long as I had her, there would be no
feat too big to overcome. Even vampires versus werewolves.
Chapter Ten
I got myself home that night without being seen by a Capuleton+0">mysn>,
nor any vampire, for that matter. I had been in the heart of Capuletville last night. As far as I knew, I was the only werewolf ever to accomplish such a feat of stealth. I had sneaked behind enemy lines and stolen vampire kisses! But, none of that was important to me because that glee in my accomplishment was pure ego and I knew it. The only thing that really mattered was Juliet.
I didn’t care about the risk or one-upping the Capulets by romancing the daughter of the head honcho, right under his hooked nose. I’d do it again and again. Nothing in this world would ever stop me from seeing her. There was no greater force than the love I felt for her…Juliet. Her name was a prayer on my lips.
I kept my midnight excursion from the party a secret when I had met up with my friends after work. They seemed amused by Tybalt’s blatant attack on me. They were trying to get me to retaliate. I had zero desire to do something of that caliber. I was bent on making love, not war. If anything, I was prepared to shake his hand and offer him a truce on behalf of both families.
Maybe I was being naive, but I believed a love so strong could break this cycle of hate that existed between the Capulets and the Montagues. What I felt for Juliet had no boundaries and maybe, just maybe, we could change things. I eventually parted ways from my friends. I told them I was heading home, but I was doing nothing of the sort. Wild horses couldn’t keep me from going to where I was going tonight. To her!
I took a subway and then a quick cab ride to get to the front gate again. Once again, I paid the guy and then hopped over the high wall, once the taxi driver was out of sight.
I scurried down the street and made my way to her house. Her gigantic, black, creepy house. It was closing in on 1:00 o’clock in the morning. It was the exact cnt was hour that I had arrived last night. I turned into my wolf form and I climbed up the side of the house and waited for her under the balcony.
After a few minutes, I heard the door open and Juliet say, “Romeo, Romeo, where are you, Romeo?”
I hurled my werewolf body over the side balcony wall and landed in front of Juliet. And I just stared. Tonight, she was as equally fascinated with me in this form as she was the night before.
When I thought it was okay, I turned into my human form. I stood before Juliet and stared into her eyes. I exhaled and said, “I missed you every waking moment I have been gone. You even occupied my dreams,” I said reaching out to her, bringing her close to my body.
She then kissed my face all over in a rapid machine-gun motion, which sent waves of desire surging through me like humming electricity. Jolt after jolt zapped me at every kiss. If she kept on, I would have had her right then! Luckily, she came up for air.
“I missed you, too,” she said. “I was counting the seconds. I was so afraid I’d fall asleep.”
“You didn’t fall asleep,” I said. “Thank God, you didn’t.” The more I thought of being rejected by her, either real or not, the more I thought my heart would be torn to pieces. She was my very heartbeat.
“I want you to come inside tonight,” Juliet said.
I was startled by the unexpected invitation. That sounded like a wonderful plan, but I had two huge questions. “What about Martha? What about your parents?”
“They won’t know you’re here,” Juliet assured me. “Martha is visiting family in Queens, and my parents’ bedroom is on the bottom floor.”
I was excited to get out of the cold and she wasn’t going to get an argument from me to be alone in a beautiful woman’s bedroom in the middle of the night. And she wasn’t just any woman. She was the woman.
She led me through the open back door by my hand. As I entered her bedroom, I was overwhelmed by the perfume and other scented items in the room. It wasn’t a bad smell. It just took a minute to get used to it and the last thing I cared about was how girly Juliet’s room smelled. However, the room was intoxicating with her scent, everywhere. Her skin, her hair, her sheets were all embedded with her unique and alluring aroma. My mouth watered.
“Where should I sit?” I asked.
“You can sit on my bed. As long as you promise to bite.” Juliet winked at me. She was a vision of excellence. And humor.
“I don’t think you can handle one of my bites,” I joked.
“Maybe not as the whole wolf, but I’m sure I can handle those teeth when you’re just little ol’ man you.” Juliet took her finger and slid it across my lips, gracing the outside of my teeth.
“You might be surprised,” I said.
“The real question of the hour, Romeo is ‘Can you handle one of my bites?’” Juliet opened her mouth and I saw her long incisors.
“Very scary,” I said looking into her mouth at her brilliant-white, sharp teeth and getting completely turned on. She could have done a toothpaste commercial with those beauties. Having an impressive set of teeth of my own, I wasn’t immune to the power of their allure or how much pride I took in them. “Use them much?” I asked, my voice crackling with what I hoped was a wry irony to do battle with her own sense of wit.
Juliet smiled and said, “I don’t have to. All my blood is delivered straight from the local hospital.”
“Must be nice.”
“It makes it so I leave the poor witches and warlocks alone.”
“You know, not all of them are witches and warlocks,” I stated.
“But you just never know,” Juliet said.
“That is the one advantage they have over the immortals is that we never know. Luckily, their blood is no good to werewolves.”
“But their kin is,” Juliet said.
“Their kin is as much a need for you guys as much it is for us. Either way, they are a recruitment class for both sides.”
“It’s so stupid, isn’t it?” Juliet stated. “All the marketing and propaganda that goes into increasing the numbers for each side? What a smelly kettle of fish!”
“I know. I’m not sure when immortality got all mixed up in these mad men politics, but now it seems we’re recruiting numbers for business purposes. It is no longer about survival. It’s all about money.”
“I wish I could leav c I ">“e,” Juliet said, looking past me as if to call up the dream of our special place.
I looked at Juliet, took my hands and cupped her face, staring into her eyes. “So do I,” I said. “I want to go far away from here. It might not be the place that you and I have seen in our dreams, but it just might as powerful if we are together.”
“I want to go with you,” Juliet said.
“I want to take you,” I said. I never had meant anything more in my entire life.
“Romeo, we should go!” Juliet was very passionate about what she was saying.
“When?” I asked.
“How soon do you think we could?”
“Let me talk to Friar Laurence.”
“Friar Laurence?” Juliet asked.
“He’s my boss. He knows how I feel. Maybe he’ll help me out or give me a loan. Maybe, we could move to Los Angeles or Hollywood.”
“I love California.” Juliet looked at me with hopeful eyes.
“I have never been there,” I said.
“You’ll love it. There are beautiful beaches that you can enjoy during the day without me, but you and I can spend time on them together when it is dark.”
“What else?” I said, letting Juliet dream for us.
“There’s a place called Orange County that is really close. It is where a lot of fun places like Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm are. We can live there. It is cheaper than Verona.”
“Okay.” I held my breath, waiting for her to further reveal more of her heart’s desire. I had been so wrapped up in my clever plot to merely see her that I had n c th/font>
Her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. “We can escape this city where we are forbidden to couple by what our society dictates. We can start over in California, with no fear, no retaliation, no oversight. Unbound from Verona, we can be free to love one another. Openly.”
My heart was beating so fast that it hammered against
my ribs. “Yes! Yes!” I said hoarsely. It was all I could do, not to shout down the house with my joyful agreement.
“I am yours,” she said softly. Juliet looked at me, walked over and knelt down, looking up at me, her face full of hope and longing, the willing submission of her virtue as clear as this starry night. She wrapped her arms around my head and used the back of my neck to pull her body close to mine. I leaned back onto her king-size bed and she collapsed on top of my body. Oh, wondrous joy! Her white nightgown began to slip and her body was exposed to me for the first time. I looked down and kissed her lips and her face, but letting my greedy eyes reap the sight of what she offered.
I nuzzled my nose down the front of her neck and rested my head on her bare bosom. I filled my lungs with the scent of them, of her. Sweet Juliet! I was completely under her spell!
Her body was so petite on top of mine. I laid her sweet weight down softly to the right, settling her gently on the bed next to me and began kissing her passionately. Her eyes held an intensity and a passion that was all too familiar.
As I kissed her, I began to get light-headed from the raw emotion, and my rising passion, held back for the sake of her offered innocence. She murmured my name like a benediction. Tears began to drop from my eyes. This was the most perfect moment of my life. This was why I was greetedTearse="+0"> by fate’s pull into this sacred abyss. I was supposed to be here at this moment, loving this woman with all of me. Every speck of my being was being poured into her heart, body and soul.
She sighed softly, a lifetime of want in that sigh, and it was for me.
The clarity of the moments caused each second to go in slow motion. If I could have stopped time, just to gaze at her endlessly, I would have. But the universe was in motion, slow motion, but it surely elapsing, nevertheless. How long did we have tonight? We could not know…so, I wanted to make every second count.
We continued to kiss as our bodies got more and more entangled, limbs twisting together like honeysuckle vines. Our clothes were making their way off, as if they were disintegrating of their own volition. Oh, if she had cast a spell on me, I did not care. I was hers to possess!
