"You're out of your mind, Shapiro" Cook chomping down on a drag. It was close to the filter.

"Why?" the young detective queried.

"Turning down that Sergeant spot. Bad move. Come on, kid. You've got potential. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw you wearing Captain's bars one day."

"That's nice of you to say but…"

"It ain't fuckin' nice; it's the truth. Only reason I've never tried is the paperwork scares the shit out of me."

"That's just my point. The higher I go, the less I do. Somehow being a desk jockey is not exciting for me."

"It's admirable but stupid. Look, your street smarts may have been meh in the beginning but you've grown. You're one hell of a cop and it's been a good ride."

Rob looks at his partner. "That kind of talk usually means you're retiring."

Cook remains silent.

"You can't be serious. You're not even that old."

"Well, I feel it. I mean I can't do this no more. The wife and I were hoping to move out of the city. Settle back in my hometown and open up a shop there."

"Sounds corny," Rob quipped.

"I oughta slap you on the head for that if you weren't such a good shot." Cook thinks for a second. "Aw, fuck it." He whacks the back of his partner's head. Rob chuckles.

SSSSCCCCCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECC CCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHH

A white Honda speeds past the two.

"Here we go, kid" Cook said.

"I'm 28!"

The squad car joins the 80 plus mph club and attempt to catch up to the speeder. Rob pull out his radio.

"This is G-26 in pursuit of a white Honda, license plate Tango Xavier Peter 7 5 4, local plates." He listens. "What? Oh, are going southwest approaching Kino Ave." Rob then taps Cook's shoulder. "Watch this."

The car continues to zip through the streets, the perp still in their sights.

"See what?"

"How we're practically getting every green light. Gotta love this new technology. The traffic lights in the hypothetical route go into emergency mode. They stop opposing traffic and allow our direction to keep going."

"Sweet. Kinda takes the excitement out of the whole chase though. Exactly how accurate is this measure, tech weenie?"

Rob brushes off the jab. "About 95%. Statistically, most chases lead to the highway ramps."

"Well, I'm about to torpedo your statistics. Cuz this guy's just turned."

The black and white follows and comes across a dead end. They stop the car and get out. They fan out.

"He's gotta be in one of these warehouses," Cook shouts

Rob extends his left arm with the flashlight and holds his gun in the right at the ready. He suddenly hears an engine revving and bright lights flashing in his face. The white Honda speeds furiously down the way toward Rob. He shoots and the driver shoots back. The scumbag nails one in his chest and Rob goes down, luckily out of the way of the vehicle.

Cook then jumps out from behind a dumpster and plants a lead flower in the driver's skull. He jumps out of the way of the now unmanned car as it careens through a fence and plows into a power station. As far as he could see was instantly bathed in darkness. Cook uses his flashlight to locate his partner.

"Shapiro! Shapiro!" He kneels down and turns him over to examine the wound. "Rob? You there? Listen to me. Everything's fine."

"It's dark."

"I know. It's just a blackout."

"We get him?"

"Yeah, kid, we got him."

Cook takes out his cell. "Dispatch, this is G-26. We have a power outage about half a mile off of Kino. Perp crashed into power station. Send back up now. Officer down. I don't have time to wait. I have to take Shapiro to the ER…I don't give a shit, just get down here!"

Cook drags his partner to the car and lays him in the backseat.

Driving toward the hospital, he periodically look back at Rob.

"You're gonna be okay, kid. Just stay with me."


Jade wakes up and is bemused by how dark the room was. She looks down and notices that her restraints were opened. She gather up all the strength she had to left herself out of those shackles and roll onto the floor.

She landed with a thud but it was more of a shock to her system that she was on her stomach for the first time in like forever. Jade felt the pain to her side was slowly subsiding. She felt better as the minutes ticked by. But she had to stay hidden.

Where do they store that blood?

Jade crawls on her belly like a snake and after some false alarms at desks and carts, she comes across a tall locker. She reaches out for the handle and pulls herself to he feet. Opening the door, her eyes lit up with the massive jars of blood staring at her; shelves and shelves of the stuff like some macabre preserves.

For the first time in a very long time, she smiled.

A loud banging in heard at the door. It opens and a flashlight beam cuts through the darkness. Suddenly, there was a deafening humming noise from the bowels of the underground structure. A generator is kicking on.

The lights finally come up again and the operating table was empty. The searcher looks up and sees the raven-haired vampire perched on the gantries like a vulture, staring back at him. She gives a "be quiet" gesture with her finger before descending upon him.