Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story
Read Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story Online
Authors: H.T. Night
ROMEO
AND
JULIET
“A Vampire and Werewolf
Love Story #1”
by
H.T. Night
Acclaim for H.T. Night:
“H.T. Night is a riveting storyteller, capturing the essence of the vampire genre.”
—April M. Reign, author of
I.O.U.
and
Dividing Destiny
“
Vampire Love Story
is a
passionate
story that is told from a refreshing perspective.”
—Summer Lee, author of
Kindred Spirits
and
Shenanigans
“A hip and timely vampire novel filled with real characters and some of the coolest vampires since
The Lost Boys
! You’re going to love Night’s
completely
original
take on the supernatural.”
—
J.R. Rain, author of
Moon Dance
and
The Body Departed
“Night tells
the
story from a funny
,
original perspective that keeps you on the edge of your seat.”
—Elaine Babich,
author
of
Relatively Normal
and
You Never Called Me Princess
OTHER BOOKS BY H.T. NIGHnt>ze="+0"> T
WEREWOLF LOVE STORY SERIES
Werewolf Love Story (Prequel #1)
Then the Entwined Serial Novel Series
1.
Entwined: The Rise of Kyro
(coming in March)
2.
Entwined: Loving Maya
(coming in April)
VAMPIRE LOVE STORY SERIES
Vampire Love Story (Book #1)
The Werewolf Whisperer (Book #2)
Forever and Always (Book #3)
Vampires vs. Werewolves (Book #4)
One Love (Book #5)
VAMPIRE NOVELS WITH OTHER AUTHORS
Bad Blood: Book 1
(with Scott Nicholson and J.R. Rain)
BOOKS OF POETRY
Everlasting Love
Romeo and Juliet by H.T. Night
Published by H.T. Night at Amazon Kindle
Copyright © 2012 by H.T. Night
Kindle Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please
purchase
an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not
purchase
it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should
return
to Kindle and
purchase
your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Eve Paludan. Her attention to detail and amazing gifts mean more to me than I can express. She is a very talented writer and editor, and I am very fortunate to know her.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to
Leslie Whitaker
, Judy Thompson, Margaret Cervenkas, Liz Jones, Alberto Silva, J.R. Rain, April M.
Reign, and Verna and John Hargrove for all of their help.
CONTENTS
“
One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun
Ne
’
er saw her match since first the world begun.
”
- William Shakespeare,
Romeo and Juliet
, 1.2
Romeo and Juliet
Chapter One
I look
I stood by the silent, virtuous Lady, just on her left shoulder. Balancing my feet on such a great statue was always tricky. I could taste her overwhelming wet, coppery scent in my nose and mouth. The aroma was reminiscent of fresh blood, not altogether unpleasant.
I looked up into the dark cold night. It was unusual to see stars over our city, but the night was crisp with them, twinkling sparks on a black velvet nightscape, such a clear night that diamond rays from starlight illuminated the night sky like Jacob’s ladders extending from deep sky to tall buildings. It was a radiant night.
We were fortunate to have most of our land bought out for re-gentrification by a billion-dollar Prince. Prince Escalus. His very surname as a visionary developer was a legend in his own time. Not only was he rich, he was powerful, and masterful at rejuvenating entire cities. His approach into developing cities and remaking them was that his philosophy was simple: Keep the peace.
There was no place that needed peace more in this time than New York City. More specifically…Manhattan.
As I looked out from my 300-foot-high perch in the night shadow of the bosom of the lady, I marveled at the beauty of my Verona. My city was like a beautiful woman to me and my city had two competing lovers and a divided heart. I was reminded of which immortal species ruled these parts. Vampires and werewolves were as legendary and infamous in these parts as celebrities. In fact, we even had our own media network.
Verona was run, in part, by the two immortal families: the Capulets and the Montagues. They couldn’t have been more different in their culture and in their immortal forms. Montagues were from the wrong side of the tracks: a ruthless, cutthroat band of scorned misfits who succeeded anyway, with all the odds against them. They were crass and abrupt, and they always needed a shave, a bath, and a good haircut. But that came with the territory. The Montagues were cursed by a comedy of errors but brazenly got to their feet, every time.
Now the Capulets, they were cultured and liked the finer things in life: big houses, expensive cars, and especially, flaunting it to the Montagues.
As different as the two sides were in culture, they stood even further apart in their unlike immortality. The Capulets had chosen to live their remaining years here in Verona—it could be a million years, as they were long-lived as vampires. It fit their smug elitist attitudes to be so long in the tooth and aggravated the Montagues that there was no way to get rid of them.
The Montagues lived their days as werewolves: meat-eating, ass-kicking, moon-howling werewolves who lived day by day, close to the earth, as close to raw passion as creatures could ever get. Montagues were warm-blooded and therefore, had passion soaring through their veins. The Capulets had to take their blood from others, like the leeches on society that they were, by virtue of their curse. Most of them,
save her
rtht size=, were passionless, elitist, and cold. Only she was different. I swore inside of me that I had never laid eyes on a wonder of the world more captivating than she.
The problem was twofold. Immortality, dominance, and bloodlines separated Verona into two sides, nearly split right down the middle at Times Square. There were two immortal families in my city, bloodthirsty rivals who gave each other no quarter, and none was asked. They mostly kept to their own turf, and to their own kind. The two families were split along Times Square.
To the north of Times Square in the Upper East Side, the Capulets had bought out mansions that were turned into apartment buildings…that were now turned back into mansions. The family owned just about every building and had turned the section of the city into a place that turned up their noses at the Hamptons.
To the south of Times Square, and all the way down to the Financial District, was where the werewolves roamed. They were definitely not as rich as the Capulets, but they lived better than most folks. If werewolves were roaming, then one would likely see a Montague in their midst. Nearly all Montague men had chosen to live their days as werewolves. Montague families were spread out pretty evenly among Chelsea, and the East and West Villages. One could even find families in SoHo and Chinatown.
Until now, there had only been small skirmishes between the two dissonant factions, but my extraordinary senses of premonition and danger detected that all hell was about to break loose in a populous that was deep in celebration about the rebirth of art, culture, education, and creativity. A resurgence of passion for the city swept like a fiery new religion into the corners of every borough. It was as if people were crying out for a deeper purpose. I knew I was.
Things in this part of the world had been quite different for some time. In reality, the entire world was different. A hundred years ago, there had been a technology revolution that spurred the inevitable. We’d touched the moon and the planets with our humanity and our machines shot into outer space, and could go no further without bankrupting every country. A realization set in that we now needed to get in touch with our mortality, our inner space.
It was time for the world to turn on its fulcrum. I felt it. Time for the immortals to take their rightful place as the world’s muscle and minds. Religion and politics tried to prevent it from happening, but eventually, immortality reigned over mortality. Now, just two immortal factions stood at the helm of society, glaring at each other from opposite corners of the city.