As always, I tend to write most when I'm stressed and need both an outlet and an emotional pick me up. Been a hard couple weeks for me both personally and professionally, and my doctor has said I need to stop treating my feelings with ice cream. Luckily, writing is sugar free and both healthier and cheaper than alcohol. And reviews are about as helpful as Ben & Jerrys

Recap: Ranger and the team dig Stephanie out of the hole in the backyard, carefully protecting her from sunlight. She is in the arms of Benito Ramirez, cold and stiff.

Ranger

It's not like I didn't know that if she was down here she would be dead. Even if she had been alive when he put her here, this far down she couldn't breath. But that didn't make it easier to see her lying there.

"What do you want to do?" Lester asked, his face unusually somber.

"I don't want to separate them, not yet." I replied. "I don't know a lot about the transition process, but I do know that when Benito was changed, he spent the night buried with his maker. Unfortunately I don't know much about who she was, aside from her being a boxing fan."

Jimmy Alpha hadn't known very much about the process, since Ramirez arranged it himself. But it seemed prudent to keep them as close together as possible until shortly before sundown. "Tank, come down here. We need to lift them up together. Then we'll wrap them in the blackout curtain and bring them home in my truck."

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Bobby asked, ever the pragmatist.

"You're welcome to make suggestions if you don't like my plan, Brown."

Tank

As always, Ranger worked out all the details in his head lightning fast. We carefully excavated the pair, though I did notice Ranger occasionally stepping on Ramirez, while treating Stephanie with the fragility of a soap bubble. When all the sand was away from their sides, we pulled down another blackout curtain and wrapped them together like the world's freakiest burrito while Lester and Bobby went to prepare transportation.

Bobby

Lester and I went to the cars to prep them for some seriously unusual cargo. Once out of earshot of the tent, I turned to him. "Dude, what the fuck is going on here?"

"Seriously" Lester said. "How the hell have vampires been around all this time and we didn't know?"

I shook my head. "Medically, vampirism should be impossible. But it sure as hell would explain some of the shit we've seen. And a few prominent doctors have come out this week confirming they exist. Can't wait until we get the first peer-reviewed article explaining the mechanics of it.."

Lester stared at me. "You are such a nerd. Who looks forward to peer-reviewed articles? Now Playboy articles on the other hand…."

We got to Tank's SUV and unhooked the middle and back seats, taking them out and putting them in the back of Ranger's truck. Then we took some paint Tank had picked up and blacked out the already tinted windows on the side and back.

After a minute I went back to what I really wanted to know. "I wasn't talking about the vampire thing. Which is freaky enough. I meant, what's up with Ranger's obsession with this woman? He wasn't even like this when he was married. How long has he been seeing her?"

"Just a few days. Ran off a couple nights ago to rescue her from the shower and didn't come home till morning. And I think he only met her a day or two before that."

I shook my head. "All of this is just so out of character for him"

Lester nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's just hope he doesn't crash and burn if this turns out badly. Because I've never seen him like this with a woman, and you should have seen the chick who took his virginity. She was smokin."

By the time we were done the only light coming through was from the windshield and front windows. We didn't want to paint any more, risking the car getting pulled over and having to explain why there were two apparently dead bodies in the back.

I drove the SUV very carefully into the backyard, backing the trunk up to the entrance of the tent. Good thing there wasn't a fence. I entered the tent again right as Ranger and Tank were finished wrapping the pair up.

Tank

I'm a big guy. Ranger is smaller, but still very strong. Still, picking up almost 350 pounds worth of boxer, bounty hunter, and heavy cloth would be hard enough on a smooth surface. Trying to get them out of the hole was hard as fuck, even with Lester and Bobby pulling while we pushed. But we did it, then scrambled up to ground level. It was easier once we could drag them, eventually wrestling them into the back of my SUV in the open space created by taking out the seats.

Ranger tossed his keys to Bobby. "Take an hour to rest, eat, and rehydrate. Then clean up the scene."

Lester started to whine, but shut up at a glance from Ranger. "We can't just leave a massive hole here in the yard, someone could fall in."

"Brown, you take my truck back. Santos, get the car Ramirez brought and bring it to the parking lot of the Stark Street Gym. Don't leave any fingerprints. He stole the car from someone, no need to leave it here and them never getting it back."

Then he looked at me. "I haven't slept in 55 hours. You're driving. I'll stay in the back with her. Drive as fast as you can without drawing attention. We need to be back in Trenton in time to bring them to the containment cells before the sun sets.

We all nodded and scattered. In 5 minutes I was on the highway back to Trenton. I glanced in the back of the vehicle, and saw Ranger was fast asleep, his arm draped protectively over the bundle of theater black out curtains.