Story where vampires are created by drop absorbed on neck?

I have been trying to identify a book that I read maybe 25-30 years ago (1987-1992), in which there are vampire or vampire-like creatures, but instead of being created in the traditional way (e.g. bite on the neck), something drops a drop of a fluid on the back of their neck, which is then absorbed into the body and transforms them. I have a vague notion that some sort of tree is what creates these drops. The drops may have had a shiny metallic appearance.

I've tried to find this book before and always came up short. I'm starting to think the whole thing was a dream and I never read it at all. But I really feel like it was a book or at least a short story.

Answer

Sounds like Brian Lumley's Necroscope series. From book 1:

But now the necromancer's scalp fairly tingled. For suddenly he sensed a great strength in the vampire - and even greater cunning. Quickly he stepped back - and in that same instant of time the pearly droplet overhead turned scarlet and fell!

It landed on the back of Dragosani's neck just below the high collar line. He felt it. It could have been a drop of moisture fallen from the tree, except it was totally dry here ... The vampire egg needed no ovipositor. Like Quicksilver it had soaked straight through the skin.

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