Vampire's Fury (Vampires Destined) by Rachel Carrington Excerpt

Vampire's Fury (Vampires Destined) by Rachel Carrington
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He returns home to find a killer. Instead, he connects with a vampire whose heart is as lonely as his own.

Devlin never expected to find love after 150 years, but Detective Joely Grayson slowly strips away the barriers around his heart. In the midst of a potential vampire rebellion, he discovers a woman whose been desperately trying to fit into the human world to which she no longer belongs.

Joely's been struggling to live the life she used to have, but all that changes when someone tampers with the local blood bank supply. Her hunger overwhelms her, and the creature overtakes the human she's pretending to be.

Saving Joely will help prevent a massacre of a small town, but it will also reveal the truth Devlin isn't ready to face. And it could rip away his only chance at the happiness that has been eluding him since he was changed.

Excerpt:

Devlin watched her, following her every move as she finished up with the crime scene. There was no denying she’d been the vampire he’d seen the night before. He recognized the long brown hair, and even if he’d seen nothing else, those eyes would be forever etched in his mind.
She finally walked away from the dwindling crowd a little less than an hour before sunrise. Devlin frowned. Did she always cut it this close? Even he was starting to feel the effects of the early morning hour, and he had many years on her.
As she sped away, he kept an even distance behind her, not too far to lose sight of her, but not close enough that she’d see him. He thought she’d be heading home now. She’d need to be indoors before the sun hit the sky, and he’d prefer not to get his ass singed, either.
Instead, the female vamp took a detour into a small building just off the corner ofSouth Main Street. Devlin didn’t need to look to know what was there, what had always been there. The blood bank. Donations accepted Monday through Friday, and obviously, extractions were allowed as well, for a man with a wool cap and dark sunglasses handed her three bags of blood.
Watching her glide into the last remaining edges of darkness, Devlin stood by the front entrance to the blood bank. Following her would have to wait.  After last night’s feeding, she should have been satiated for days. So the three bags of blood didn’t make sense.
Once the woman was completely out of sight, Devlin pushed open the door of the bank, surprising the young man with the shades.
“Hey, man. We don’t open for another three hours.”
“Really? Then why are you handing out bags of blood like candy at Halloween?”
Face paling, the attendant held up both hands. “Look. I gotta make a living, and this place don’t pay diddly squat. Some people have a blood fetish. I don’t ask questions, and the money is good.”
“That woman that just came in, she come here often?”
“Every other day or so. She’s one of my regulars.”
“When does she…?” Devlin stopped talking and inhaled deeply. The faint coppery scent mingled with another less than enticing aroma. He walked around behind the counter and opened the freezer door. The stench nearly toppled him, and he recognized it instantly. THC. Almost impossible to be injected, but someone had obviously figured out how. The bags of blood reeked of the drug.
He slammed the door shut and looked over his shoulder. How could the vampire not have smelled it? To an ordinary mortal, the drug was nothing more than an easy way to get high, but it could reroute a vampire’s chemical structure, driving them mad with hunger, if taken in high doses or on a regular schedule.
“Damn it.” Devlin whipped around and snagged hold of the man’s collar. “You have to stop selling this stuff,” his gaze dropped to the name tag affixed to the white shirt, “Leon.”
“Hey, like I said, I gotta make a living. So as long as there’re weirdos willing to pay top dollar for it, I’m going to be right here selling it.”
“How much do they pay you?” Devlin didn’t have time to argue.
Leon’s eyes began to gleam. “Fifty dollars a bag.”
“On a full day, what’s the most you sell?”
“About seventy-five bags, maybe eighty if old Teddy comes in. He likes to lick the stuff off his wrists and pretend he’s Dracula. Whatever freaky shit turns you on, right?”
Devlin took out his money clip, counted out several one hundred dollar bills in rapid-fire succession, and extended them. “Here’s ten thousand dollars. That should hold you for a few days. Anyone stops by, you tell them the bank’s closed. Got it?” He edged in closer toLeon’s pockmarked face. “If I find out you’ve sold more bags, you and I are going to have a problem,Leon.”
The man’s hand closed around the stack of bills while he licked his lips. “No, man. I ain’t gonna sell anything, but this only buys you two days. After that, it’s another ten thousand or my business starts back.”
Greed could be an ugly master, but Devlin could best it. It would be too easy to snapLeon’s neck and end the sales chain here, but he hadn’t killed a human. Ever. And he wouldn’t start with this scrawny bastard.
“Leon, those people who come in here looking for blood, do they ever talk about being real vampires?”
“Oh, shit. Don’t tell me you believe in them, too?”Leoncackled. “How stupid are you people?”
Devlin leaned in close to the man’s face and slowly edged out his fangs, givingLeona good, long glimpse of the deadly incisors. “And did they ever show you these?”
All the color drained from the attendant’s face, and his mouth began to work like he’d just stared death in the face.
“You see,Leon, there’s fantasy and then there’s reality. If you sell one more bag of blood, you’ll get up close and personal with reality. Are we clear?”
Nodding frantically, Leon clasped his neck. “C-c-c-clear.”
“Enjoy the ten grand.”