Ok guys, to make up for posting the last chapter real late, here's the next chapter sooner.

Grace felt the breath catch in her throat as a dark voice sounded behind her. Before she could even turn around, she was slammed back against the wall she'd been creeping along. She opened her eyes to see a boy who didn't appear to be any older than twenty. He had short blond hair that didn't even reach his ears. His eyes, she guessed, would have been a bright blue if they hadn't been flaming pits.

Despite herself, a quiet gasp escaped from her. Her back already ached from hitting the wall. Her heart clenched in fear. Before she could make another noise, she felt a cold hand wrap around her throat. It tightened, taking away her ability to make any sort of noise. She grabbed his wrist and clawed at it but he paid no mind.

The man's other hand grabbed the collar of her shirt, easily tearing her shirt to reveal her thorax. Had this been a less possibly fatal situation, she would have blushed. But it wasn't. She tried kicking at him but it still didn't appear to bother him. He leaned down. She felt his cold lips against her skin a moment before a fiery pain ripped through her, his fangs breaking through her skin and breastplate.

Grace's vision blurred with tears that overflowed, spilling down her cheeks. She tried to make a sound, any sound, but nothing came out. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a minute or so, she heard a voice that made her wonder if she should feel relieved or even more frightened.

"Hey! What the Hell do you think you're doing?!" Johnny stepped out of the shadows and stormed over as the vampirate pulled his fangs from her, making her chest ache even more. The vampire looked over at Johnny and just smirked.

"What does it look like?"

"Get your hands off her!" Johnny snarled, honest to God snarled.

"Why should I?" the vampirate asked, tightening his grip on Grace's throat.

She started clawing at him again, kicking out, but it didn't work. He kept his gaze locked on his lieutenant. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately, spending all your time locked in your cabin," he said. "But I can bet it's got something to do with your own little blood supply here. Well, not anymo-."

Before the vampirate could even finish that sentence, Johnny had lunged at him, tackling him to the deck. Luckily, the vampirate released his grip on Grace before falling. Grace gripped her throat gingerly, slipping down the wall until she was sitting, and watched in horror as Johnny slammed his balled fist into the vampirate's stomach while the other male clawed as Johnny's throat.

The two males rolled over and over across the deck, both trying to get the upper hand on the other. In the end, Johnny had the vampirate pinned to the deck, holding the man's arms behind his back in a way that left him immobile. The blond-haired vampirate was saying something angrily in what sounded like Portuguese but Grace couldn't be sure. Johnny was glaring down at the vampirate, saying something low and darkly. She couldn't make out the words but she could tell from Johnny's expression that it was anything but friendly.

Johnny only released the other vampirate when he had stopped struggling and had fallen silent. The lieutenant got to his feet and walked a few steps away, looked back, then made his way over to Grace when it was clear the other vampirate had no intention of attacking him.

Grace watched with wide eyes as Johnny got down on one knee before her. His own throat was torn and blood trickled down from the gashes in little rivers, joining together to make a flow that stained the front of his shirt red. "Are you ok?" he asked gently, his voice ragged from the wound. She didn't respond and didn't react when he carefully took her hand in his own larger, rougher hand and moved it away from her neck. She couldn't tell how bad it was but she still didn't think she could talk.

When he appeared satisfied with his assessment of her neck wound, his gaze moved south. Finally, that blush did appear on her cheeks. She didn't dare look down but she could bet it wasn't pretty. It must have been still bleeding if the look in Johnny's eyes were any indication.

She flinched when he leaned forward, closing her eyes tightly. She wasn't normally one to shrink back and just take pain and she wasn't normally one to not fight back, but what was the point? There was no one to save her here, no one to save her from Johnny anyway, and she couldn't hope to be able to fight him off.

A shiver raced through Grace's body as she felt Johnny's cool, wet tongue run over the blood and bite on her chest. But, despite her previous ideas and fears, he didn't bite her. He just kept licking up the blood that trickled from the bite.

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes to be met by a headful of curly, brown hair. Her heart pounded in her chest and her blush returned full strength. Now that she was positive she wasn't in any immediate danger of Johnny biting her, she could take a moment to realize just how intimate their current… situation, for lack of a better word, really was.

After several minutes, and even more curious looks from the occasional passing crewmember, Johnny pulled back. She watched as he licked his lips before slipping his arms around her, picking her up bridal style and carrying her inside, away from curious, hungry and more than aggressive stares.

Neither said anything, not until they had reentered the room. Johnny set her down on the bed before returning to the door to close it. She watched as he tore the knife from the lock, tossing it to the ground beside the door. She flinched at the noise the now useless object made as it hit the wooden floor. She didn't know what Johnny planned to do to her but she could only guess it wasn't going to be pleasant.

He turned and walked back over to her. She shrunk back but he simply sat down beside her. He looked over at her. His eyes were glazed with pain and concern. "I'm so sorry," he rasped. He was… apologizing? But…

"It's not your fault." What was she doing?! She was comforting him! She should be trying to get him to let her go! But, looking at his expression, she felt a tug at her heart. True, he hadn't actually hurt her, yet, unless one counted earlier that night when he had kissed her against her will.

She sighed quietly. "Is your neck ok?" she asked.

"It will heal," he told her, tentatively touching his neck wound. "After all, it's not that deep. Garret is new to the vampire world so he's not very strong, at all."

Grace still wasn't convinced and Johnny must have picked up on it but he smiled, of all things. "Don't you worry about me, little lady," he said.

"But vampires heal slowly," she pointed out.

Johnny just shook his head, though slowly, looking like a child that knew a secret you didn't. "What do you think all the extra blood I take goes to?" She just stared at him blankly. "Oh, sure, it satiates my appetite but otherwise the extra is just… wasted. Now, it will go towards helping me heal."

Grace blinked. For a moment, she felt like she was back at Sanctuary and they were sitting in the game room, talking over a chess board about how his healing was going. Instead, they were sitting in a cabin on a ship of bloodthirsty vampirates talking about the horrible wound on his throat, which, by now, had stopped bleeding.

"How are you feeling?" She shook her head at Johnny's sudden question.

"Huh?"

Her cheeks burned bright red when she felt his cool touch brush against the red and slightly painful wound between her breasts. She looked down, leaning back away from his hand. She grabbed both sides of her torn shirt, holding it closed. Johnny's chocolate brown eyes shot up from her chest to her face. He looked down, then back up then away. His hand rested beside him on the bed.

Suddenly, as if it wasn't embarrassing enough as it was, he raised his hand to the front of his shirt and started unbuttoning it. She looked away, her blood seeming to be quite content to stay in her cheeks. When she finally looked back at him, he had finished unbuttoning his shirt and slipped it off his shoulders, revealing his muscular chest and arms. And, what's more, he offered it to her, though he wasn't looking at her, as if embarrassed.

Hesitantly, Grace took the shirt from him. She looked back at him to see that he still wasn't looking. So, she turned so her back was facing him. She glanced back over her shoulder. He was watching the floor. She quickly took her torn and useless shirt off, letting it fall to the floor before pulling on his shirt, buttoning it up. But, her hands were shaking. It took her several tries before she could even get the first one.

She froze when she saw dark-skinned hands move past her sides. She was suddenly aware of Johnny's presence just inches behind her. Even though her mind was racing, her hands were frozen. She watched as he buttoned the rest of the buttons, his face only an inch or two away from hers, Johnny resting his head on her shoulder so he could see what he was doing.

Turning her head, she found her nose was almost touching his temple. "Johnny." He raised his head, turning it towards her, his gaze boring down into hers. "This can't work-."

"I love you." The words died in her mind and throat. He loved her? She just stared at him. She swallowed and took a deep breath.

"This can't work out, you and me," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm with Lorcan."

She could see the hope, the futile hope, die in his eyes. She'd hurt him, badly, but what did he expect? He knew she was with Lorcan. But, whether he was going to go off at her or not, she didn't know.

Read and Review! Alsoif there are any vampirates fans out there that also enjoy reading fanfics in the normal Vampires section, please check out my (and a friend of mine's) fanfic 'I Belong To You'. The link for it is located on my profile. Thank you.