Flying in from a mysterious dig in the Gobi Desert,

Dr. Lamarck Mondrick and his team of

archaeologists plan to announce an astonishing

find, and reporter Will Barbee is assigned to get the

story. But Will s attention is diverted by a rival

reporter, the coolly seductive April Bell, whose

flamecolored hair and perfect white teeth invoke in

him a strange mixture of attraction and alarm.

Stranger still is the scientists behavior; they

seem more afraid than elated at revealing the fruit

of their labors.

When a visibly terrified Mondrick stammers

something about a secret enemy awaiting the

coming of the "Child of Night," then falls down

dead before he can name the menace, Will finds

himself drawn into a mystery far beyond mortal

understanding...a mystery that involves the

intoxicating April Bell.