Blood Lust

"Fever in the Blood" a novella by: Rebecca L. Brown. When Gabriel manages to find a vampire, he discovers that not all of the legends are true. Unlike the creatures of myth, Ruth (and others like her) must drink the blood of other vampires to survive - rather than sustaining the vampires human blood acts as a drug, destroying an addicted vampire's self-control, their personality and ultimately even their basic survival instincts.

Gabriel asks Ruth to turn him and Ruth is happy to do so for reasons of her own; her previous apprentice, Michael, has become addicted to human blood and following the death of his human girlfriend the true extent of his addiction is revealed. Ruth realises that she must turn Gabriel so that she does not starve. At the same time, she must decide what to do with Michael, who has degenerated into a dangerously inhuman creature.

Based on the same premise as Thrall's Sacrifice [printed in the Their Dark Masters anthology, which placed seventh in its Predators & Editors poll], Fever in The Blood is a stand-alone novella-length story which will be a part of the author's 'Blood Cravings' universe.

[Fever in the Blood is around 10,000 words long]