"Something doesn't seem right..."

Jenkins watched as their ship easily began pulling away from the blood pirate's vessel, but considering how quickly they had caught up with them, they must be holding back now for some reason.

"Keep the sails full, I will return in a moment. Ari, keep watch."

Everyone shouted a determined "yes sir!" before focusing back on their assigned jobs. Jenkin's gave his spot up on one of the mast ropes to his first mate, Danny, then ran inside to check their location and figure out which direction they could manage while steering clear of the other ship. He didn't want to risk running into them again, even if they had to go without food for a day or two. 

As he started writing down small changes on his nautical chart, it began to feel like someone's frozen fingers were walking down his spine. After a few seconds he realized that it was getting harder and harder to move his own fingers, his hand fighting to get the quill to scratch along the worn paper. When it finally stopped moving altogether, he noticed that someone had slipped inside silently and come over to stand quietly right besides him. 

How in the world? I hadn't even heard him... 

Now that he'd noticed him, though, he could instantly smell the strong scent of sea water and copper clinging to his partially covered body. Jenkins barely managed to turn his head far enough to get a decent look at the man. He was tall, with dark blue eyes, short black hair, and smooth, almost-boyish features. His body had lines of drying sea water sliding down the bare ridges of his chest, but it only took him a second to realize two things that were far more important...

He wasn't part of his crew. He was a blood pirate. 

Leather creaked due to water saturation as the man slowly leaned over his map, his pale hand moving to where Jenkins' pen had halted on the paper.

"Hmmm, that would have been an unexpected move. Most humans would only plan for routes where their food stores would allow, yet considering you restocked a while ago, you should be running low for such a voyage and taking this route would have left your crew hungry for several days..."

Jenkins' eyes narrowed as the man easily picked apart his plan. With a sinking feeling he realized that he had just indirectly told him that their ship had been being followed for days! 

"We spotted your vessel as we were avoiding the royal navy. Those large ships and hunters can get quite annoying... tsk." 

The man smiled as he shook his head slowly, then tilted it toward him. 

"You are quite handsome for a human. What is your name?" 

Jenkins ground his teeth together as the man nonchalantly grasped his jaw firmly and ran a claw against his black beard, slicing a clean line straight through the bristly hair.

"I am not quite sure about leaving this beard, though. You would look much better without it."

Of all the things to comment on right now.

Judging from the sounds outside, his crewmen were still busy doing as he'd ordered and hadn't even noticed his predicament. Not that he was sure they would be of much help against the demon. 

His mind was pulled away from his crew as the man's hand tightened its grip on his jaw.

"A name, please?"

He thought about ignoring him again, but if he let him get irate enough to kill him, he wouldn't be able to try and help his men if any of the other demons showed up. Hell, when the others showed up. 

With a slight sigh, he decided it was best to do as he was told... for now.

"Captain Jenkins."

The words were growled out due to the pain in his jaw, but also because of frustration. Either way, they were audible enough.

"While that is a nice last name, I only want your first."

Bloody devil.

Still, a name wasn't worth dying over. 

"Alexandre."

He could feel the man's powers wearing off on him, but it didn't seem like the man was aware of it, himself. 

Don't give yourself away, then. 

"Good. Now then, Alexandre, please wait here for me, love."

With a blank expression Alexandre slowly straightened, trying his best to appear like he was doing as told. He waited until the man turned his attention toward one of the windows before abruptly darting for the double doors leading to the main deck. As soon as he reached for the handle, however, his body locked up. He was struggling for air in seconds, but he refused to drop to his knees.

"Perhaps you aren't as immune to my skills as I thought. But at the same time, you shouldn't have been able to move, either," the man said as he walked over and leaned closer, clearly intent on speaking again. 

He didn't get the chance, though, because Alexandre pushed his body through the man's strange paralysis ability and swung his fist straight for his face. The hit thankfully took him by surprise, and the moment it connected with the side of his face Alexandre felt himself being free from the last few tendrils of paralysis holding his body captive, allowing him to shove the doors open and shout the alarm.

"Blood pirates are onboard!" 

He whirled back around with his blade drawn the moment his words had been relayed, only to see two more pirates standing on either side of the first.

How in the...

The sound of blades being pulled from their scabbards as his crew's attention focused on him, then past him, met his ears, but none of the blood pirates even bothered to react. In fact, they looked as if they were comfortably watching a harmless play unfold before them. 

"I like the young one, he's cute."

"The one next to the Capt'n's pick looks delicious..."

Alexandre wasn't about to let some savages talk that way about his men. They were not to be owned, and especially not by pirates!

"Be gone with you, or fall by our blades!" he shouted, mustering up enough courage to make his words sound as strong as he wished he'd felt. 

The young man standing next to their evident captain smirked and nudged the man with his elbow.

"Ay, captain. Picked a good, ye have. Cocky mouse for sure."

Alexandre scoffed at the nickname, though after all of his years of training, the slight jab should not have affected him so. The captain's growing smirk at the joke, more than the words themselves, was what bothered him to no end! And that was why he suddenly lost his calm demeanor. 

"I will show you how a mouse fights, then!"

With a determined yell he lunged forward, swinging his sword straight at the captain's dark blue eyes. When the blade came down, however, it cut only through air.

 "What?"

He could feel those blasted frigid fingers beginning to inch their way down his spine again and quickly turned, swinging at the reappeared blood captain before he vanished again.

"Stop running and fight me!"

One of the men who were still standing where the captain had been whistled, then smirked, flashing what looked to be a set of fangs.

"He's definitely a keeper, capt'n."

A familiar hand appeared out of thin air and grabbed his jaw, then squeezed as the icy fingers on his spine intensified their dance.

His entire body was again paralyzed as a firm, ice cold body pressed against his back. Sharp teeth gently tugged at his ear lobe while Alexandre tried to fight off whatever spell the creature was using on him, but nothing seemed to help. Its power slowly lessened over time, but it had taken at least a full minute to be able to completely move again last time, and he needed to be able to move now! 

"Aye..." the man said as his face appeared from the corner of his left eye, his wet hair swaying before his dark eyes as he spoke. "He will be very enjoyable."

Feeling the man's cold tongue against his cheek brought a shiver and a growled warning.

 "To hell with you."

That seemed to be a humorous thing to speak of, because all three of the pirates chuckled as the captain pressed a kiss to the place he had just licked. 

"I'll show you what hell really is, love... and by the time I finally allow you to die, you'll wish that it was like your human version."