Vampirates - I love this premise and wish it wasn't targeted at a middle school reading level

I love the idea of vampire pirates, that's such a fun premise. I just wish there was a more "mature" version of this series where there's actually blood and death, rather than a couple 12-year olds on an adventure. Of course, being interested in vampire pirates in the first place probably means I have a 12-year old's opinion of what's cool...

I'll admit I've never read this series and I should probably give it a chance anyway. Maybe borrow them from the library or something since I really don't need to be spending money on these. Here's an amazon link in case anyone else is interested though.

Also, I tried checking steam to see if there were any vampire pirate video games (since that'd probably scratch my itch just as well) but all I found was an upcoming game called Vampirates which is decidedly not what I'm looking for. It looks more like a social game like R.E.P.O. than vampire pirates hunting at night. Oh well, I guess I'm stuck reading a book series intended for 12-year olds.

Have any of you read this series? Does it still hold up if you aren't 12 years old but apparently seem to be 12 years old at heart?