While I was being taken to the hideout (wherever and whatever it was), Darren (I later learned) was meeting with an equally exotic looking woman, nearly the twin of the one who had picked me up, except that she had blonde hair instead of dark.
"Did you get the ring?" she asked Darren.
"Yeah! We're in business!"
The woman smiled at Darren in a very sexy way. To his delight, she embraced him and kissed him.
And, while her tongue was in his mouth, she stuck a needle into his neck and injected him with something.
He backed away from her in dismay, trying to say something, but he couldn't get his mouth to work. A moment later, he was laying on the ground, unconscious.
"I'm sorry, boy," said the woman, taking the ring off of his finger and slipping it on to hers. "But I don't want to have a 'business partner.' But don't worry. I'll take good care of you -- as a pet. I wish you were ... "