Page 27 of The Stars and the Stage
His eyes stayed closed even as they clutched him to their chest, shouting his name.
Fear as cold as a glacial melt rushed over Diego, tightening their lungs and making their fingers numb.
The wound—they had to close it. If he was still bleeding; was he still bleeding? They couldn’t tell. There was so much red on him, so much of his scent choking their mouth and throat, so much of Diego’s mind screaming that he was dead, they’d lost him, they’dkilledhim with those very fangs he’d wanted gone a decade ago.
They pressed their tongue to his neck, trying to feel for the cut, or some sign that it was closing. There, was that a shift in the skin? Or just the papery makeup coming off? Fuck, they couldn’t tell.
“Maddy!”
He still didn’t move.
Blood—he needed blood. Diego couldn’t give him that, but they had the second-best thing.
As the car came to a halt three blocks from the club, Diego kissed his neck with their fangs, gently, so gently, pressing their blood-rejuvenating venom into him. The softest sound came from him, something that could have been a moan or could have been his empty lungs settling. Diego gave him their venom again, and again, blessing him with all they’d denied him over the weeks, their stores brimming and their heart wild.
“Come on,” they pleaded between bites. “You’re my fucking consort, you are not taking your blood away from me again, dammit.” The taste of him mixed with salt in their mouth as they sobbed. “Maddy Burke, I fucking love you. Wake up and tell me you love me again, too.”
His body made another sound, deeper and uglier. And this time, his fingers twitched in their grip, then tightened around theirs. He mumbled something that sounded a little like, “Did it work?”
Diego laughed and it came out a sob. “You self-destructive shield.”
“Sorry.” For as weak as his voice was, it held every bit of the intensity and adoration they’d grown to associate with him. “I love you, too. This you.” His lashes fluttered, and he met their gaze long enough to smile. “Every damn cell in your body and both your fangs and all your past. I’d like to love your future too, if that’s all right.”
“You’d better,” Diego growled. They turned his face towards theirs and kissed him, and kissed him again, feeding little doses of their venom into him between each press of lips.
He sighed happily, curling against them, but he finally gave their hand a squeeze. “Easy there, with this little blood, too much venom might turn me.”
“Fuck, sorry.” Diego stopped, then returned to just the kisses, tugging at his lower lip and gripping at his hair. “You have to be human so I can bite you forever.”
He curled against them, his trust so complete that it seemed to deepen with every show of control Diego offered, and, eyes closed again, he smiled. “All my blood is yours, Diego.”
“How do we have this muchstuff?” Serina rattled a stack of hats for emphasis, almost knocking down the five at the top. “If we want to set up in a different place every month, we’re still going to need a warehouse just tostoreit in.”
“You could always split it up,” Maddox suggested. He sat in one of the dressing room chairs, still pale and more tired than Diego had ever seen him, but alive. Vampire venom was miraculous, but it was no miracle. Twelve hours was hardly long enough to resupply all the blood he’d lost.
He seemed all right though, otherwise, and of those who’d acted in their con to save the pieces that made the Celestial Club what it was, he had sustained the worst of the physical injuries by far. Valentine still refused to let his fangs back out, and Diego had left him at their apartment wrapped in a blanket with a mug of cocoa spiked with blood—notMaddy’s, though he’d offered. Maddox had stayed with them both through the day, Diego emerging from the shower to find Valentine curled up against Maddox’s side. Maddy had kissed his head before they’d left.
When Diego asked about it, he’d shrugged. “He’s a sweetheart.”
Diego gave Maddy a soft shove. “But notyoursweetheart.”
“If he was, would you be jealous?”
Smirking, Diego snatched his wrist and ran their thumb over the thin scar line that remained there. “Why should I be jealous of people who are both already mine?” They laced their fingers with his. “Anyway, Valentine is just a bundle of snuggles, and you have two sides for small vampires to curl up in.”
“And two wrists?”
“You will spill your blood for whoever I tell you to.”
Maddox smiled, the fire in his gaze so hot it could have been the sun, warm and brilliant and beautiful. “As you wish.”
The world had seemed so bright for that moment, but standing in the Celestial Club now, it was clear there would still be hard work ahead of them. Hard work, but worth the effort, even if Diego hated that it had to be done in the first place. This warehouse had been beautiful, and while they were sure to recreate that beauty again, turning the club into a mobile secret felt like a step back instead of forward. They would still set up in large spaces, still cater to the same size crowd, but by shifting location with every new event, Serina hoped they could avoid situations like the one the Paladins had put them in.
Finding places to move between would never have been possible if not for Maddox connecting Serina with his Vampire’s Liberation contacts throughout the city. Without him, the whole place would no longer exist. Without him…
Diego had spent ten years without him, and they wouldn’t endure another minute.
Maddy hummed thoughtfully, his gaze sweeping the dressing room like he was giving the space life just by looking at it. “You know, San Salud could use a place like the Celestial Club, and I bet my family has an old warehouse we could spare.”
