Answering a frantic call for help from his hated rival, Bristol McGrath finds the man's servant not only murdered but tortured and left for dead- Staked to the ground and tortured. Finding Richard Ballville having been taken prisoner and being tortured as well, Bristol kills his guard. Bristol learns his supposedly lost to-death love had not been lost after all- and she too is in danger! There, in the Pinelands the two men learn of a cult meaning to make a sacrifice to their god. Things from the darkest, most ancient times of human history and from long before don't stay in their own lands. When called forth by the greed and lust of men, things from far off will answer.