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She slid a dagger from her knee-high boot. Without pause, she jammed it into the nearest jugular.

The vampire gargled in alarm, grabbing his neck that was quickly coated in blood.

The guards sprinted back to the door.

Archer jumped down, one knee on the ground, gaze sharp as a hawk. He popped to his feet and rammed a boot into the nearest guard.

The guard ragdolled and smashed into the opposite wall.

Archer smashed an uppercut into the other guard’s middle.

Before the recovering bouncer could signal an alert, Ryan dropped from the opposite rooftop and separated the vampire’s head from his body.

Archer bounced back and covered the door.

Bodie and Lana swiftly finished off the other vampires.

Vann pushed off the wall and sauntered across the street.

Ryan met him halfway and synced pace with him. “Hey.” Nearly as tall as Vann, Ryan was broad and casual, with his hands in the pockets of his dark cargos. He glanced up the street at the darkened, empty-looking SUV, and mimed a mushy kiss.

Vann winked. “Quinn was suspiciously quick to accept watch duty.”

“Quinn is being polite because she knows it’s her turn,” Quinn said through the com.

Vann nibbled his tongue at her quip. “Oh, so you were paying attention. I thought you’d fallen asleep.”

“Almost,” she griped, then cussed. “Now shut up so I can focus.” Friends for years, neighbors for longer, he’d missed the hell out of Quinn since she moved up the coast with Ryan. Not that he didn’t see them often, but it wasn’t the same as their old food-truck and hunt nights.

Ryan tossed Bodie’s sword, and the werewolf plucked it from the air and spun it as he secured his grip.

Lana wiped her dagger clean and sheathed it, then smiled with a teasing shake of her head at Vann. “You’re going to miss it here. You’ll be bored to death in that adorable little town in no time.”

He tossed Lana’s axe to her, and drew his broadsword from its sheath. The heavy steel was light as a paperweight thanks to his inherited strength, and made to slice through the toughest of demons. “Nah. There’s something bigger and scarier than vampires in Lost Beach.”

“This sounds suspiciously like the castle incident.” Ryan dragged the last body into the shadows.

Blade still sheathed, Archer hooked an arm around Lana and kissed her temple. “What castle incident?”

One side of Vann’s lips curled up in response. He stepped into the doorway.

Icy white lights glowed under each step; the corridor was otherwise pitch-dark. Quieting his boots, he moved deftly down the steel steps.

Blades drawn, the team followed.

The bass grew louder, rumbling the walls as they neared a set of double doors, closed, with dim red light seeping through the cracks. Vann leaned against the wall and eased one door open a margin.

Dark as midnight, save for red fairy lights circling the posts and tables, the place was like a damn tomb. Albeit a lively one.

“Lights?” he whispered into the com. “I can’t see shit in there.”

Bennett chuckled through the com, the club music thumping in stereo. “Come on, Vann. Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark.”

Behind him, Lana stifled a laugh. “Quite the threat we’d make, running into everything and falling on our faces.”

Quinn tsked through the com. “We’d lose the intimidation factor real quick. Okay. Lights on in three, two, one.”

When he’d first started hunting, building alarms were a joke, lights were controlled manually, and doors were easy to kick down. These days?