[[Content Warning - Mild gore, bad language]]

Jack picked at the buffet, bored, annoyed, and itching to leave again. Despite the fact it was his choice to be here he chaffed at this fancy prison, with all it’s brainwashed inmates. He’d tried to free a few, the more promising looking ones, spilling blood in the name of freedom, but the charm laid upon them was more than his blood magic could break. So now he was stuck here until he could find a way to leave unnoticed. A gilded caged he’d stepped into looking for someone, and been caught by despite himself.

An old familiar ache pulled at his blood, and he found himself remembering the second time he’d been caught in a trap this deadly.

Jack woke at the first faint footfall, rolling onto his back he took in the room through slitted eyes, above on the deck he could hear yelling getting closer.

“Tomas, go below and get Jack up here NOW!”

He watched as Tomas clattered down the steps, clumsy still, unused to the pitch and roll of the ship. Jack feigned sleep, his smirk hidden in the gloom, teasing Tomas had been his main source of entertainment this trip. Tomas leaned over him, “Jac-,” Jack cut him off, his hand shooting out of the blankets, grabbing Tomas by the nape of the neck and pulling him down into a hot hard kiss.

Tomas squealed and struggled, pushing away from him and wiping his lips in disgust. “You perverted asshole!”

Jack blinked lazily at him, “What? That’s not how you’re supposed to wake a princess?”

Tomas backed up the steps, “You’re sick, stay away from me!”

Jack swung out of bed, naked, the scars on his lean muscular body blurring with his tattoos. “So, darling, if you didn’t come for a kiss, maybe you just want my body? Forward, but I can work with it,” he took a stride across the tiny cabin and grabbed Tomas by his shirt front. “Tell me, Tomas, why did you wake me?” he purred the question, relishing Tomas’s fear and revulsion.

“You two stop flirting and get your asses up here now gods damnit!” captain Arnot sounded furious, but Jack enjoyed that too.

“We’re not flirting!” Tomas’s face darkened to a deep scarlet as Jack pushed him up the steps and out onto deck.

“Oh you might not have been, but I most definitely was,” he leaned in and licked Tomas’s face before shoving him across the deck away from him.

“Captain, you called?” he smirked, waiting for Arnots reaction.

“Where the fuck is your uniform?!” the captain didn’t disappoint, a vein pulsing in his temple, his face screwed up in fury.

“Well, you said now, so I skipped the preliminaries, besides, “ he grabbed his dick and swung it around, “I’ve got my sword, what more do I need?”

“Get off my deck you miserable insubordinate piece of shit!”

Jack bowed low, and then sauntered back to the dark doorway down to his cabin. “Your wish, is my command, captain.”

“Put some clothes on and get your worthless carcass back up here, Dontan wants you!”

Jack flinched, and headed down the stairs, annoyed that he’d given away that sign of weakness, Dontan was one of the few people in the world that truly scared him. He dressed quickly but carefully, wrapping his forearms, and concealing knives about his person. Clattering back up the steps a few moments later, still settling his cutlass on his hip, his eyes sought around the deck for Angelus, the one real ally he had on this floating midden. Their eyes caught and held for a moment, and Jack felt himself relax just a little, Angelus would come for him, he wouldn’t leave him in undying pain for decades, immortality had it’s downsides when you ran afoul of creatures like Dontan.

Striding across the deck he headed for the hatch down into the cargo hold, where Dontan had set up his creepy altar to the Nether gods. He hoped this would be brief, an exchange of veiled threats, rather than a situation like last time. He suppressed a shudder that ran from the nape of his neck to his heels and swung down the hatch into the gloom ignoring the ladder. The creak of ropes and wood was dulled here, and a cloying scent gripped at the back of his throat making him gag. The smell of rotten blood and burnt flesh only slightly masked by damask roses. It brought back memories he’d rather forget and his hand went instinctively to his sword hilt.

“Don’t keep me waiting Jack, you know how that annoys me.” The voice was papery dry yet filled with compulsion and his legs did what his body did not want them to do, moving him further into the gloom.

“Nice place you’ve got going on here.” He was damned if he would let his fear show, though his heart was thundering and his palms sweaty.

“Lies, always with the lies Jackin, when will you learn that lies just cause you pain!” something sharp bit into his back and he clenched his teeth on a scream, he wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

“What *huff* do you want, you asshole?”

“The same thing I’ve always wanted, the truth, give me the secret to immortality, and all this pain will end.”

“Go fuck yourself!”

He could feel warm wetness spreading down his back and legs and his mouth tasted of copper from where he’d bitten his lip to stop himself screaming. The lash bit into him again ripping his skin open.

“Wrong answer. You know I do so enjoy this, I could watch you scream for days, weeks, years even.”

He spat blood and bared his teeth, “Not going to happen you sack of shit”

“Oh Really now? I think you underestimate my power, your Captain isn’t going to come and save you, no matter how valuable you are to him.”

Dontan stepped out of the shadows, curling his razor whip back for another blow, his body had shrunk since last time Jack has seen him, his face more gaunt and sunken, the eyes dark hoods hiding icy malevolence. Jack braced himself for more pain, he would never give in, the thought of this sadist gaining immortality was a million times more terrifying than anything he could do to him now, even a hundred years of torture would be worth seeing Dontan die.

He tried to move, to turn around and walk away, but Dontan’s magical compulsion had wrapped itself around him from the moment he’d first smelt the stench of it. Blood magic, but not the type Jack knew how to use, this was corrupted, as rotten as it’s owner.

A hand on his shoulder jolted him with shock, more because he’d heard nothing behind him, than he wasn’t expecting it.

Angelus’s rich voice flowed over him like a sweet breath of fresh air

“I am afraid my good friend Jack must decline your invitation Sir, we have duties elsewhere.”

The whip cracked out at them, but was deflected by a wave of Angelus’s hand and a shimmer of magic.

“You!” Dontan drew himself up, trying to add inches to his hunched frame, “who do you think you are!”

Jack could hear the smugness in Angelus’s tone, “I do not think, I know, it would be rather strange indeed, if I did not know myself, would it not Sir?”

“You will obey me!” Jack could feel the force of the compulsion hit him and get deflected off with Angelus’s words.

“I think not, Jack is not yours any longer, and you are no longer welcome on this ship.”

Angelus had an arm under his shoulder and was turning him to leave when Dontan hissed.

“You will regret this!”

Angelus didn’t turn, just murmured, “quite possibly, but not today,” and then hauled Jack up the ladder and back out into the early morning sunshine. Jack felt the sun burning off the last of the dark magic and sagged against Angelus, unable to stop his body shaking

“What took you so long?”

Angelus didn’t reply, just scooped him up in his arms as if he weighed nothing.

“’Lus?” He couldn’t feel the pain in his back and legs anymore, just a cold numbness.

“Poison, save your energy Jack.”

He pressed his face into Angelus chest and let the rhythmic thudding of his heart carry him away into unconsciousness.