Page 23 of The Stars and the Stage
“Maddy!” Diego gave his hair a little tug, and the jolt seemed to snap him back into place. It snapped the world back into place with it; regardless of what Maddox had done with the hunters previously and the uncomfortable act they’d both had to put on to get Diego out alive, they were still them: a little rough, a lot fierce, but unable to go partway without going all in. “I’m fine. That was horrible—not because of anything you did, but because the hunters were there for it—but I understood. I agreed. And I had you.” Maybe the submissive role wasn’t their thing, but if they had to submit to anyone, they found they wanted it to be Maddy. “Though if you’re going to ask me to play as your pet bat again you’re going to have to spill me alotmore blood first.”
Maddox laughed, soft and wet but relieved. Slowly, he leaned his head against their stomach. “You were incredible, Diego,” he whispered. “But I think I prefer being the one on my knees.”
“Good.” They shoved him just enough to make him wobble. “Because you fucking owe me a lifetime of kneeling. And one very thorough explanation.”
He lifted his hands again, palms up this time. “All right, yes, I understand. It’s a lot to explain, though. Maybe we should go inside, just to be safe.” Maddy sat back on his heels, and he offered Diego both his hands as he stared up at them. “If you trust me enough for that?”
“ShouldI trust you?”
“I have never lied to you, Diego Figueroa.”
“Only kept your secrets.”
Maddox winced. “I meant it when I said that I wanted you to judge me for who I was. But I owe you the full story.” He glanced toward the club’s side door.
One of the vampire chefs had poked their head out, and now a second stood with them, looking uncertain. Diego made a shooing motion at them, not because they cared whether other people watched, but because the more audience they had, the more likely there would be interruptions. Diego had waited far too long for this explanation, and maybe that was partially their own fault, but by god, they were getting it.
“Come on, there’s probably a spare storage room where you can plead for my forgiveness some more.” They took Maddox’s outstretched hands and dragged him up.
He towered over Diego, but when he smiled and bowed his head to them, Diego still felt liketheywere the one on top of the world. “My lord, it would be my honor.”
“You know there are two ways this can go.” Diego sat on one of the club’s unused thrones, one leg slung over its arm and the other propped up, their motorcycle jacket hanging off their knee.
Maddox had chosen a simple bench to perch on, one Diego was pretty sure was meant as a step stool and not a seat at all, but somehow he made it look majestic anyway, like he’d just commenced a war assembly. The stacks of unused cop uniforms Serina had been meaning to cut up threw off the scene a little. Maddox decisively edged his seat away from them.
As he settled again, he exhaled like a man on the executioner’s block. “Will I like either outcome?”
“In one of them you bleed for me,” Diego explained. “And the other you bleed for me more. So, probably yes.” They sighed too, though, running a hand through their own hair and remembering Maddox’s grip in it. Maybe he could do that again, while they bit him, digging their fangs into his flesh until his breath was ragged. “Are you—or were you ever—a hunter?” It seemed like the first, most obvious question.
“Oh, fuck no.”
Diego didn’t realize how much that possibility had weighed on them until his denial settled in their chest. But then, if he had never been a hunter, why was he working with them?
He must have seen their immediate confusion because he blanched. “I didplaya hunter in that television show I was in right out of college.”
“Red as Blood,” Diego said. “Sorry, I looked it up.”
Maddox shrugged. “I figured you would. Whether you’ll heed anything I beg of you has always been hit and miss.” He smiled as he said it, but there was sadness in his eyes too. “I was still half up my own ass when I took that job, but the longer I played the part, the more I hated it—and hated who I’d been and what I’d done to you. I quit as soon as my contract would let me, took all that acting skill and the dramatics of television vampire hunting and found someplace I could put it to better use.”
Diego’s heart quickened, even though they told themselves it did not matter. So long as Maddox wasn’t a hunter, he could be whatever else he wanted. But hehadhidden this from them, whatever it was. And even now he hesitated. Diego leaned forward, grabbing him by the shirt collar and tugging him forward. “Whatkindof use, Maddy?”
He made a sound, half a laugh and half a sob, and let them draw him off the stool, until he was climbing onto the throne with them, scooping them into his lap and nuzzling against their shoulder. “We’re called the Vampire’s Liberation Association. We find situations like this, where groups of humans are growing physically aggressive toward the vampires in their neighborhoods, and we do what we can to help.”
“Wait—fuck.” Diego pulled away enough to stare at him. “You help vampires, for your job. And you didn’t want me to know about this? All this time you’ve had aget out of jail freecard and you gave me a heart attack keeping it hidden!”
“I’ll gladly bleed however much you demand for that.” Maddox looked at them like all his blood was already theirs, like it always had been since their eyes first locked the second day of freshman year. “But that’s why I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want you to take me back just because I was some vampire protector, or because you hoped I could help the club. I needed to know you wanted me not merely for my job but for who I had become.”
Diego started to grumble, but then it finally hit them. “Fuck—the club. We have to tell Serina about your work. Maybe they can send someone—”
“Diego,” he cut them off, pressing his lips to theirs. “My work sent me. Serina knows. We agreed that for now the best thing was for me to infiltrate the hunters, many of whom already look up to me for the role I played on Red as Blood, then gain their trust as someone with more knowledge and experience, and report back to Serina with their movements.”
The reality of it all dawned on Diego slowly, soft and hopeful. “That’s what you stayed to talk with her about that first night, why she felt comfortable letting you join our event.” He hadn’t been there solely for Diego at all. They could hardly hold that against him though. He’d realized they worked at the Celestial Club and done his best to apologize before he’d even spoken with Serina about the club’s safety. That was enough. And after all he’d done, they’d still had the nerve to doubt him. “You’ve been helping us this whole time, and here I thought—” They groaned, fitting their forehead into the crook of his neck. The scent of his blood, dark and dry and oaky, teased their senses. They fiddled with the collar of his shirt, grumbling, “I should probably be pleading foryourforgiveness.”
“No, of course not. You couldn’t have known what I’d do if Iwasa hunter after all. I’d have told you much sooner if I’d realized you might be hurt by this.” Maddox drew his hand up and down their leg. The sensation tingled beneath their skin, waking them up to just how close their bodies were, how comfortable this had quickly become now that their worry had faded. Maddy pressed his lips to their hair. “Though if you uncover any other seemingly appalling evidence against my morality, ask me about itbeforerushing into a potentially dangerous location, please?”
Diego grabbed Maddox’s wrist, shifting his touch from the top of their thigh to the inside. Like the over-entitled submissive he’d always been, he took the liberty to press between their legs and teased at the seam of their jeans. The pressure of his fingers left them pleasantly warm and shivery, and they leaned into him, fiddling with the skin above the pulse in his neck. “Do youhaveany other terrible secrets? You should probably come clean now.”
“I…” He rolled his shoulders and tipped his chin, like the light scrape and pinch of Diego’s fingers was a delightful annoyance. His rubbing increased in force, strong enough to stoke the heat between Diego’s legs to a full fire. When he spoke though, he was just as serious as he was desperate. “I never told you this: When you showed me your fangs for the first time, I thought of you biting me—the way it looks in a horror movie, no venom, no bliss, just your pleasure and desire consuming me—and Iwantedthat. It terrified me. I was never as afraid of you as I was of myself.”
