A/N- Hello all! Thank you for all the kind reviews and messages on tumblr about my fanfiction so far. Apologies for the lack of updating recently, but I have very busy. However, to make up for the lack of updates, please take this extra-long chapter as an apology. Can't wait to hear what people think! Enjoy!

Chapter 33

Constance felt her legs nearly buckle from beneath her with relief as the figure of Armando appeared in her vision. He looked both terrifying and deadly, with his wild hair flowing around his head imitating a black halo. It was almost ironic for him to be associated with an angel, for right now he looked more like the devil himself.

He used his cane which was being held tightly in his left hand to pierce through Humphrey's body as he stepped closer. Constance remained standing against the railings and all relief disappeared as her eyes were locked onto his own demented ones. He took another step closer and Constance felt her own fingers tighten around the blade which only minutes ago belonged to her dear cousin.

She had never taken this scenario into consideration. In fact, she could not even have comprehended this situation. For right now, she was genuinely considering fighting the man she loved as he had not put down his own blade and looked as though he was prepared for battle.

When he took another slow step forward, his feet dragging ever so slightly as he moved his cane, Constance felt her heart skip a beat. He raised his rapier so that the blooded tip was mere inches away from her neck. She swallowed harshly but kept her own hand still, hoping not to aggravate the dead man further.

"Constance…" He growled in a hollow voice, his words like thick honey to her ears. A shiver shot down her spine and she had to blink a few times confused by his passion that was soaking his voice. Very slowly, he brought his hand down, much to her relief.

"You saved me". She replied, her eyes never leaving his. He inclined his head slightly as though to agree and Constance suddenly realised that there was a battle still occurring on the ship. Despite the pain, her body ran on adrenaline and without thinking she moved past Armando to observe what was going on. She noticed Carina to her left still controlling the wheel but she seemed quite put off by the dead Spanish Captain who was now standing only inches away from them. Looking back down the ship, Constance was shocked to see that the fighting looked as though it was slowing down. A cold hand made her jump and Constance turned to see Armando watching her oddly.

"You have a lot of explaining to do". As he spoke through clenched teeth, his head jerked in the direction of her now dead fiancé and then she watched as his eyes very quickly hovered over her cousin. She was still deeply in shock over her cousin and her emotions were almost numbed at this point. She was about to reply when all of a sudden, Carina began to scream from next to them and Constance turned to see Lieutenant Lesaro who was currently ordering two officers of the Silent Mary crew to carry the unconscious body of Henry onto the Silent Mary. Barbossa was still fighting some of the remaining English Royal Navy who were once controlled by Humphrey and Constance had no idea where Jack could have gone.

"What are you doing?" Constance snapped at Armando who was overseeing the abduction of Henry Turner. He glanced at her and his mouth opened into an uneasy grin. Droplets of black liquid dribbled down his chin and he closed the distance between the two.

"Since I have lost the Sparrow" He growled. "I am taking matters into my own hands". He finished and all of a sudden, she gave a cry of alarm as he wrapped his arm around her waist aggressively and threw her over his shoulder. She kicked and slammed her fists into his back, still being careful not to stab him with her blade, but suddenly began to feel very queasy from the loss of blood in her arm. As she was being hauled away, her eyes became blurry and she was able to make out the body of her cousin who was fading further and further away into the distance. Carina was desperately trying to keep the ship on track and could do little to save her and Constance knew she had to act.

Of course, she wanted to be with her loved one once again, but she refused to let him take Henry and herself as some sort of prisoners. Her eyes began to glaze over once more and she was fighting the oncoming darkness.

But Constance refused to fall uncurious. Blinking rapidly, she took several deep breaths and clenched her jaw as the pain in her arm was beginning to get too much.

Using her legs, she kicked frantically. Armando must not have expected her to have retaliated so much as she suddenly found herself ungraciously hitting the floor. She managed to stand relatively quickly, and as she managed to straighten herself up, she was surprised to see the hurt in Armando's eyes as though he himself was shocked to have caused her harm. He went to step forward to help her up and without thinking she raised her sword at him.

He cocked his head in a questioning fashion and very quickly raised his own sword. She blinked once again to clear her vision and felt her hand shake. Looking past Armando's shoulder, she saw Barbossa finally finishing off the last of the English.

"You do not want to do this". He warned, his voice guttural. She nodded her head in reply.

"You are correct, I do not. But I demand that you bring the boy back on this ship right now".

He seemed amused and all of a sudden, he swung at her and she only just managed to move out of the way.

"You do realise that you betrayed me and went off with these pirates". He spoke calmly as he swung once again at her. Moving once again, she knew that he would have interpreted her actions as betrayal. In fact, right now she was surprised that he had even saved her if he thought she was as bad as a pirate. Swinging in his direction and completely missing him, Constance flicked her hair that had fallen out of its ribbon from her face.

"If you must know, I was doing this all for you, you bloody fool". She shouted back and he managed to use his cane to smack her leg, causing her to fall onto the bloody floor beneath her. Looking up she noticed he had bent down to observe her.

"You let the pirate that condemned me to this fate get away. You think that was helping". He hissed angrily, causing the black liquid dripping down his mouth to spray onto her dirty shirt. But despite his words, he still had come to save her. He could have easily have left her to die and caught Jack. Constance attempted to sit up when the end of his cane forced her down.

"If your revenge means so much, maybe you should have left me to die then". She snapped pushing his cane away with her sword harshly. He suddenly grabbed her by her injured arm very quickly, his fingers digging into the exposed flesh and Constance cried out in pain. Pushing him away with her other hand, she stopped moving when she realised that she had just plunged her sword straight through his chest.

Through the pain she had no comprehension of her movements and she felt her mouth open as she slowly moved her watery eyes from the sword now protruding from his chest to his own dark eyes.

He did not seem in any pain and instead had a rather bored expression.

"Really now, was there any need?" He asked with a tired voiced and she gave a squeak of alarm when he grabbed the sword from his chest and yanked it harshly out. He barely glanced at the weapon before throwing it far away and Constance attempted to go and grab it as it was her cousin's. But his hand on her arm stopped her.

"Enough Constance". He snapped and before she could even reply, he had grabbed her and the floor beneath her feet was once again replaced with a cool breeze of the air.

When her feet once again touched the floor, it was the deck of the Silent Mary and she carefully moved her face which had been hidden in Armando's damaged naval coat. Looking around she saw Henry who was tied to the mast of the Silent Mary and he was very much awake. Looking back to the Black Pearl, it was very close to the odd island and Constance could feel the anger radiating from Armando. Once they were on land they were untouchable.

However, both Henry and Constance were in the complete opposite situation.

Armando had still yet to let go of her and she felt very guilty over stabbing him. He was barking orders in Spanish to his men to move the ship closer to the Black Pear and when he finally stopped talking, Constance pulled herself up to his body so that she could whisper her apology to him.

"I'm really sorry about the sword thing. Are you in any pain?" She asked but she didn't manage to lean back in time to not get hit by his oil like hair.

"I am dead. Does that answer your question?" He asked almost sarcastically and Constance lowered her eyes wishing he would let go of her. As though he had read her mind however, he gently untangled himself from her and she felt Santos take her arm from behind her. She couldn't understand what Armando was ordering Santos to do but she started to get the idea when he was escorting her to Armando's cabin. She attempted to dig her heels into the floor when Captain Salazar gave her a spine chilling look which appeared to say, 'don't even try it'. Resigned to being dragged off, she gave Henry a sympathetic look and got the same in return.

Santos forced her to sit down and much to her surprise walked around the half-decimated cabin to collect a small tin. As he approached her again, he opened the tin and there were some half decent bandages inside, although some looked a tad discoloured.

"Why have you still got those?" She asked as he began to roll up her sleeve. He gave her a perplexed look and then she watched a small smile tug at his blue lips.

"Well we aren't exactly going to use them ourselves, are we? You have seen us Constance. No amount of bandages are going to fix missing body parts or being dead in general". He replied as he began to wrap the bandage tightly around her arm. She snorted at his reply and blamed the traumatic events of the past hour on her behaviour. Her mind felt as though it was scrambled and she couldn't help but slump back ungraciously against the once comfortable couch.

She didn't really know what to think. In the space of an hour she had lost her fiancé (although no love loss there), her cousin and now her only chance of saving the actual man she loved. She had planned to be with Barbossa and Jack in an attempt to reach the trident and break the curse. But instead she was trapped on the Silent Mary with the crew of the dead and Henry Turner. Not knowing what on earth they would do, she was about to ask Santos when Armando walked through the wall causing her to sit up straight in alarm.

"You can go". He murmured to Santos who gave her one last look before walking through the wall. She wondered if they had all grown tired of doors but shifted her thoughts away when Armando came and sat next to her.

He dropped his cane and sword onto the floor and gave her a questioning stare.

"Would you care to explain?" He asked and Constance wondered where the hell she should begin. She hurriedly spoke about Humphrey and her dedication to finding Armando once again. She then began to explain her logic of joining Barbossa as she didn't exactly want to be lying any more to him. As she spoke, his expression did not change once and she was worried she had upset him and suddenly wondered if she had been a complete fool. She wondered if she had been naïve to think she could save him and the crew all by herself. Constance was about to begin her long winded apology when he shifted in his seat abruptly and leaned in closer so that she could feel his cool breath on her face.

"And your reasons for fighting me?" He asked lowly.

"I am still against your kidnapping of the boy for I have no idea why you need him. Surely Jack is your only target. I fought because I refused to become another prisoner". She replied and she watched him jerk his head a few times as he listened to her words. Rage flashed at the mention of Jack but he seemed to keep his temper under control.

"You are not a prisoner Constance". He grinned almost sinisterly and she shrunk back only to find him pressing his cold body against her own as he next spoke. "You are mine".

It was perhaps one of the most romantic and terrifying things he had ever said to her and she gave a muffled cry as his lips were forced against her own. He was practically on top of her and she could feel his growls vibrate off her lips and he pulled her body against his own. His actions felt desperate and animal like, as though he was a man possessed. And to some extent, he was indeed a man possessed.

She had expected him to be angry at her or even irritated. Not completely consumed by lust. Not that Constance was complaining but as he was kissing her she suddenly had a very bad feeling. His actions mirrored that of a condemned man who would never kiss again and she pulled away breathlessly to look into his dark eyes.

She was not totally shocked to see a single black tear streaming down his remaining side of his face and she had the awful feeling that whatever he was planning to kill Jack, involved him risking his own life.

Very hesitantly she wiped away the liquid and pressed a gentle kiss against his blue tinted lips. Her eyes drifted to the part of his face hat was missing and with shaky hands, she traced where his face used to be. It was an odd sensation as though he had placed her hand into icy water and his eyes never left her own. Retracting her hand back, she instead captured a piece of his hair which was swaying in mid-air and carefully twisted it between her fingers, watching as it swayed as though perpetually caught in water.

"I don't know what you are planning Armando, but please do not do this. Do not allow your rage to consume you". She begged between kisses. He pulled back from her tender embrace and very slowly bent down to pick up his rapier and cane before standing to his full height, although he back was hunched over ever so slightly. He did not speak as he regarded her and all emotion she had once seen on his face was replaced by a certain type of emptiness. As though the curse had pushed his humanity back down again and she felt secretly honoured she had seen the true Armando through all the darkness.

The sound of Lieutenant Lesaro calling his name grabbed their attention and just before he was about to leave the cabin she called out to him.

"Do you fear death my love?"

His body went rigid and she watched as he circled around slowly to face her once again. Lesaro's voice was getting louder but Captain Salazar became deaf to it as he regarded her. He did not reply but his eyes said everything that he could not.

Standing up and taking a deep breath, Constance moved the silver dagger in her belt to a more comfortable position and moved her long blonde hair behind her ear. She walked calmly and stood next to Captain Salazar.

He opened the door for her and as she walked outside into the open, she gasped loudly.

The sea was parted and so were her lips. It was the perfect mixture of beauty and danger and she had never seen anything like it in her life. She turned to Armando who appeared to be just as surprised as she was and Lesaro was standing rigidly next to Henry awaiting orders.

Constance had no idea what was going to happen but the look in the Lieutenant's eyes made her brace herself for the worst. It looked as though the night was going to be long.