CBY Book Club: Blog Tour Promo & Giveaway - Blood Bank by Zoe Markham

Blood Bank
Author: Zoe Markham
Genre: YA Fantasy / Horror
Release Date: July 2017

Book Description:
Benjamin is a programmer moonlighting as a security guard at Dystopia, a seedy club that caters to the down-and-outs, the desperate, the addicts. He's been building his reputation, saving for a way out - but when he rescues a young woman from the nearby estate, he may just have stepped too far out of line...

Lucy is ordinary; a girl with a deadbeat boyfriend, a normal life and college studies. But when her world takes an odd twist, she starts to wonder about the people she's meeting, the situations she's in, the odd aversions and attacks happening around her. They're just coincidences...aren't they?

And Zack is in deep trouble. He's losing his girlfriend, drowning in debt, and has dwindling job prospects - and that's not the worst of it. His debt is to people who won't ever forget it, and who want the things closest to Zack's heart: his blood - and his life. In the heart of Swindon, an ancient order hides in plain sight, spreading their influence through the streets like a disease. But despite their widespread power they are catching up with the modern world: the vampires are going online, and the Order is about to become more powerful than even they would have dreamed...

Buy Links:
Amazon US ¦ UK

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35154789-blood-bank

EXCERPT

After leaving Lucy it took Zach less than ten minutes to get back across town. Still he was covered in a thin sheen of sweat as he pulled into a car park, panic setting in over how long he’d taken to get there.

Immediately, to them, meant precisely that. No question or hesitation. Zach’s hands shook as he pulled the handbrake on and cut the engine. He left his lights on low beam and waited in silence as the usual fear engulfed him.

Each of the car park’s streetlights was dead, which was nothing new for the area, but the glow from the nearby roundabouts, for which the town was famous, kept total darkness at bay. It pushed back the shadows far enough for Zach to imagine all manner of horrors lurking just out of sight.

Zach could see from his low beams that the church’s front door was closed, and he knew that at this time of night it would be locked. More than that, it would be locked and bolted with an intricate set of almost medieval-style chains on the inside. There were no lights visible from the outside. They never risked intrusions from pious insomniacs. The basement would be dimly lit by candlelight, and despite the lack of cars around him, Zach was certain he’d have company there tonight. As the group’s newest member, he was the last to own a car. The others had long since sold any means of transport apart from their own shoe leather. For all the good it had done them.

As he waited, Zach’s thoughts drifted to Lucy. How much longer would it have taken to run her home and then doubled back? Ten minutes? Fifteen? And how long would they keep him waiting here like this? His forehead slumped to the steering wheel as a fresh wave of frustration flooded over him. He’d left her alone, right in the arse end of town, on a Saturday night. And for what? His scheduled donation wasn’t until tomorrow night – what couldn’t wait until then? He lifted his head and slammed it down again on the wheel, hard. He knew full well that whatever it was that they wanted, the benefit to him would be every bit as minimal as the cost would be astronomical.

When Zach finally raised his head he saw movement from the corner of his eye. On the far left side of the car park he could just make out an overflowing bin. There was a long row of takeaways nearby; the church car park was a convenient cut-through to one of the many back ways into town. Students, shoppers and office-workers alike streamed across it daily, armed to the teeth with coffees and greasy bags full of burgers, kebabs, chips or overpriced paninis. The bin would house endless treats for the scrawny, urban fox that was now approaching. As Zach strained his eyes against the darkness, the skinny little canid made his move, and began hungrily digging through the bin’s offerings.

Something about the normalcy of the fox and the innocence of its search for food – not prey, just food – caught Zach’s imagination. Everyone needed to eat, and there was rarely ever only one way in which any given hunger could be satisfied. As he watched the fox, a dark shadow, blacker than the surrounding night, began to obscure his view. Zach flinched as he saw a bright rain of blood illuminated against the darkness. A cruel laugh echoed in his mind as he fought hard to catch his breath. Standing where the fox had been only a heartbeat ago was a robed, hooded figure. It stood all in white, so bright that it appeared to glow softly around the edges in the gloom of the night. The more Zach stared, the more detail began to reveal itself. The figure’s chest and arms were sprayed liberally with blood, and what remained of the fox lay at its feet. Its hands rose slowly to push back the hood from its face, and dark, deep-set eyes locked with Zach’s own. Zach was momentarily paralysed, watching helplessly as it chewed on a tangled mass of fur and flesh. Lifting its head, bright blood flowed freely down its chin. The figure seemed to increase the light around itself somehow, as if making sure that Zach saw and understood. And then, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.