I Will Sail With No Pirate! (mxm)

Chapter 2

"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.