Page 9 of The Stars and the Stage
He traced the places that Diego’s skin had brushed his over the course of the night. “Thank you for that. And for this night, for giving me a chance.”
“Yeah, well, it was the least I could do. Literally. The events have a whole list of rules everyone has to abide by.”
“I read them—the customer ones, anyway. I think Serina added to my agreement on purpose, to protect you. She seems to care about you a lot. You deserve that. You’vealwaysdeserved that.”
That seemed to break the tension between them for the first time since Diego had locked eyes with Maddox at the side door of the club. They sighed, setting their crown on Serina’s desk and boosting themselves onto it. “So, I guess this is where I ask you how you’ve been?”
“Is it?” Maddox chuckled. “I wouldn’t know. My script ended here.”
“Well that’s just sloppy writing.”
“I know? I should talk to the director.” He leaned against the wall, loosening from his shoulders to his smile, though the intensity of his gaze remained constant. “I’ve been all right. Graduated college with a double major in psychology and history, neither of which I’ll ever use, took a television acting gig until my soul started sliding out through my ass, and since then I’ve just been… finding myself?”
“And going to the gym.” Diego motioned with their chin, salaciously scanning his new musculature. Maddox laughed, and he returned the favor with such a mix of heat and dramatics that Diego could not even reproach him despite the flush it brought on. That made them wonder if Maddox had noticed just how much their skin had lightened without regular sunlight to bring out the natural melanin. Whether that obvious vampiric quality bothered him.
But no other part of their vampirism seemed to bother him anymore. “And you?” he asked. “You’ve been doing well, if your performance tonight was anything to go by. This seems like an amazing place.”
“It’s certainly not prime time television.” Diego wasn’t embarrassed to work in a field that catered to kink, but it was still nice to know that Maddox wouldn’t judge them for it. Not that they’d feared that, particularly, after the showhe’dput on earlier. “I do love it. This kind of acting provides so much freedom, and it’s really only half presentation—the other half is reading the audience, finding ways to engage them and help freethemto live out their own fantasies, so they can find the same joy in the performing that I have.” And it meant that sometimes Diego got to live out their own fantasies while they did. Fantasies like torturing their ex-boyfriend when he came to apologize ten years too late.
Not that he had ever actually been tortured by their demands, if the expression he wore while reminiscing was anything to go by. “You do an incredible job. I was so stressed when I first arrived because, I mean, you could have chosen not to allow my frankly kind of childish fancies and kicked me out—but that was still the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
“I made you strip and drained you until you nearlypassed out. Fuck, what is your lifelikenow?”
“Not particularly pleasurable, I’ll admit.” He laughed, and his eyes left theirs for a split second, before coming back. “But besides the blood loss—which, technically, I don’t mind—the way we fed off each other, and the other guests played along, and everyone got so into it, but it was all safe and open and oddly honest despite the acting? I haven’t felt that in years. Not since I was last with you.” His voice lowered, still possessing all the determination of Prince Maddox but with a soft, pleading edge that was purely Maddy. “Please, I know I’m a broken record at this point, but give me another chance. I won’t expect anything from you, and you can banish me at any time. I still love you, Diego, and I want to see if that love is capable of changing to fit the new us.”
Diego’s heart stuttered. They crossed their arms against the sensation. “When you showed up at the club last week, did you think you were going to win me back?”
His lips didn’t twitch up but he seemed to smile all the same, staring at them like he could see into their soul. “I didn’t have plans for that yet. I just knew that if I could reach you finally, I needed to apologize. But then you were glorious, so how could I not fight for you?”
“I’m also still a tiny, spiteful gremlin,” Diego muttered, because Maddox calling them glorious while staring at them like he believed it was suddenly far too much.
“Oh, yes, was I not clear? The thing I find glorious is that youarea tiny, spiteful gremlin.”
“Fuck off.” But this time Diego was laughing, their cheeks burning with another blush. Ah, fuck him. Fuck how their heart still hurt from his betrayal and fuck how it ached for more of this all the same. “One chance, Maddy,” they said. “For now, I’ll allow you to visit me during events, prove that you mean what you’re saying, and then we’ll see. But if you break my heart again, I’ll do far more than flay you alive.”
“My lord, I will accept your worst and still I’ll not dream of hurting you.” He looked so sincerely like he meant it.
Then the brick came hurling at Diego through Serina’s office window.
It missed them both by a few inches, crashing into the far end of the desk and thudding to the ground in front of Maddox.
“Fuck.” Diego launched toward the window, ignoring the crunch of glass beneath their feet as they struggled to spot whoever had thrown the projectile. Even with their night vision, it was too bright inside and too dark beyond to make out the fleeing human. But Diego knew who the culprit had to be—the same people who’d been sending the club threats for months now.
This wasn’t just a threat, though. It was an escalation. And so long as the police were willing to turn a blind eye toward acts of violence against establishments that hired vampires—and step inagainstthe victims if push came to shove—things would likely keep escalating.
Maddox knelt over the brick, carefully unwrapping a paper rubber-banded to the side. He didn’t look shaken or scared, only darkly thoughtful as he spread it open for Diego.
Serina Freeman, you’ve ignored our demands for too long. Keep supporting the monsters of our city, and we will see that your establishment supports no one ever again. — LA’s Paladins
4
INTERLUDE
Maddox Burke was no prince.
For all his pleasantries and gallantry, there was grime on his boots and blood on his hands. Some part of him thought maybe it had always been there, even before this turn of fate—before his life had become vampire fangs and threats hurled with enough force to kill.
He could not stop thinking about that brick as he sped through the quiet 3am street, the reverberation of his motorcycle echoing beneath the lamps. A foot to the left, and Diego would have been hit.Diego,his Diego.
