Page 18 of The Stars and the Stage
“Does this mean I’ve officially earned your acceptance, my lord?” Maddox teased, limp against the couch and a smile on his lips.
“Fuck off,” Diego gave him a mock shove in the ribs, but they returned his smile without hesitation. “Except don’t, because you’re not allowed to leave me ever again.”
“I hadn’t planned to.” He didn’t look away, didn’t even blink, his focus on them so hot and bright he could have been their sun—the one they’d enjoyed as a human. He made the night beautiful. His expression wrinkled as he tried to shift positions and winced instead. “I might want to shower though, and then sleep until noon. Are you going to join me for that?”
“I suppose I have to see you cared for, don’t I? Since youaremine.” They leaned over him and pressed their lips to his, fangs and all. “My Maddy.”
Maddox looked so small while he slept. Diego had forgotten that: the way he’d bow inward, burying his face into his pillow. Every now and then he’d make a little noise, delicate and mysterious, neither happy nor sad. Diego ran a hand through his hair, waiting for his tension to ease once more, before slipping quietly out of bed.
His computer dialed up with such a loud series of noises that their heart jumped into their throat. Maddox only curled tighter with another tiny sound. Diego tried to relax.
They told themselves this wasn’t a transgression—it was their right to know. If Maddy had been awake, he’d only have argued for a minute before giving in and showing it to them himself. Still, they felt a little cruel as they clicked open the internet browser and clumsily navigated to the search engine. They’d only been online a few times since the worldwide web had sprung into more prominent use over the last year, but they figured there had to be some record of—
There: a movie and television show database.
Diego typed in Maddox’s name.
Maddox Burke, lead actor in Red as Blood (1988-1990), where he played the role of Brennen McGale, a famous vampire hunter who…
Diego’s blood pounded in their ears.Vampire hunter. Fuck, he’d played a hunter—and not just any hunter, but the glorified kind that always appeared in these popular dramas, where vampires were fetishized monsters who lived only to be fucked or killed, usually one then the other. He’d let himself become the face of that awful stereotyping, the valiant vampire murderer that so many humans clung to the idea of. The hero they emulated when they threw bricks through windows and left dead bats outside doorsteps.
Diego forced themself to breathe, to focus. This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted them to know; he hadn’t wanted the knowledge of what he’d done to cloud the fact that he’dchanged. He wasn’t the selfish teenager who’d come at Diego with a pair of pliers, and he wasn’t this malicious actor either. While he’d hidden this from Diego, he’d been very clear that he had quit television because what he was doing hadn’t sat right with him.
Thatwas Maddox’s truth. It had to be.
Still, Diego’s heart beat in their ears as they finished the summary.
…a famous vampire hunter who struggles with his lust for an immortal vampire seductress through all three seasons, eventually killing her to save his high school sweetheart and fellow vampire hunter.
They shut the browser down.
Their hands shook, but they flexed and tightened them, reminding themself of how Maddox had felt beneath their fingers. How he’d begged for their bite. But that only made them wonder if his hunter character had begged the terribly-portrayed mythical vampire on his show for the same thing. What they had was not an act; the way Maddox looked at Diego—that couldn’t be fake. Why would he feign that?
Diego turned the computer off, but they couldn’t make themself climb back into bed, to lay beside his sleeping presence, so tight and restless, and keep envisioning his face on aRed as Bloodposter. A few minutes—they just needed a few minutes to themself. To process.
The room swam around them, and when they opened the bathroom, they found rows of hanging shirts. Wrong door. They nearly closed it again, but their gaze caught on the massive lock box on the floor, a heavy-duty case made to be carried by someone with Maddox’s height and strength. They should have let it go. They would have, probably, if their brain wasn’t whispering doubts, their fangs aching at the base like someone had wrapped a pair of pliers around them and pulled.
Surely it wouldn’t open for them.
But when they entered Maddox’s old pin combination the lock popped free.
Diego knew what was inside the moment they lifted the lid, a burning heat radiating along their skin and tearing at their strength. Still, they forced themself to look long enough to lodge the sight of it into their memory. Knives, zip ties, a gun, and the source of their pain: a series of holy silver chains, ranging in size and weight but all of them bursting with power. These were not stage props, not even amateur anti-vampire paraphernalia—this was genuine hunter gear.
Diego snapped the case close. They had been apprehensive before, but now they were truly scared, their head light and their nerves on fire. Their legs wobbled as they stood and they had to grab at the closet door for support.
This was still just Maddox though—Maddox who’d been visiting the Celestial Club for most of the month, who’d bled for Diego and begged for their bite. Who’d played a television hunter for three years. And who had a lock box of authentic hunter gear.
Diego didn’t want to believe it.
But if those itemswerehis….
Why own weapons made specifically to harm vampires if he didn’t mean to use them? Perhaps he could have been given them by someone, someone who hated vampires enough to want them dead and who’d thought Maddox was the kind of person who agreed? But then he’d chosen tokeepthem. The only reason to hold onto holy silver—to not find someone who could unmake it, remove its deadly effects on vampires and turn it back into its composite metals—was with the intention to use it someday. He might have decided that, for the moment, Diego and Valentine were worth more to him as potential partners than as victims, but how long would that last? If he could change once—if he ever really had changed in the first place—then he could change again.
He could go back to being the same selfish teen who’d ruined Diego’s life the instant his love and lust for them ran out. And this time he wouldn’t be holding pliers, but weapons made to trap and burn and kill. This time, the vampire he wielded them against would end up dead.
They closed the door, slumping down its side as their knees gave out. Their gaze locked on Maddox’s sleeping form, every rise and fall of his shoulders urging them to run. He had looked so vulnerable to them just minutes ago. So small and fretful. Not a predator, but a prey-thing, one they’d been proud to claim, heart, mind, and body.
Maybe there was something Diego had missed.Maybe—they hoped.
