SOLVED. Metal necked Vampire hunter book from 80s or early 90s [s]

[Emmett]

I read this book about 20 years ago, so it was probably teen literature.

The gist is, a possibly-teenage male breaks his neck, I think in a car crash, and the end result is he has a metallic exoskeleton encasing his neck. This metal neck makes him impervious to traditional vampire biting attacks, and because of this he is approached to become a vampire hunter, possibly on a cash per kill arrangement, and upon accepting he excels at that role.

***Spoiler details***

He is so good at vampire hunting that he begins to hunt himself out of a job, so he catches and imprisons a vampire that he uses to create fresh targets. He starves this vampire between vampire creations, so the vampire resorts to feeding off of rats to sate his hunger. Consequently, he creates hundreds of vampire rats, which don't need the jugular in the neck to feed, and do what no human vampire can by sucking the vampire hunter dry.

**not 100% sure if the following is from this book, but it may be**

The man who hires him may be a vampire himself, possibly even the one who becomes imprisoned. He may have hired him to kill other vampires because the farther down the line a vampire falls (A bites B, B bites C, C bites D...), the more feral and violent the vampire is, comparatively.

Hopefully this helps, because it has been driving me crazy for some time now. Not a great book, but it filled the need to read at the time, and is situationally relevant now.

Thanks for your efforts, if only in reading my spotty synopsis.

[Juels]

Night Wings by John Peel?

"In Night Wings, the 17-year-old recipient of the world's first artificial neck is offered the job of vampire hunter."

[Emmett]

Ha, got it in one. Thanks

[Juels]

You're welcome.