From the award-winning author of Season of the Witch, comes a highly original thriller blending mysticism with science and exploring themes as old as time: the imperative of violence, the redemptive power of love and the quest to live forever. What is the greatest desire of all? In the death choked corridors of Palermo's famous catacombs, a young man stands surrounded by eight thousand mummified corpses. The answer he gives, will set the course of his life and take him on a journey into the heart of darkness. Adrian Ashton is a brilliant man: a quantum physicist and chronobiologist who has devoted his life to the study of chi - the vital energy that runs through our bodies. A gifted scientist, he is also a skilled martial artist - and a hunter. Calling himself Dragonfly, he preys on fighters and martial artists who are blessed with a strong life force, draining them of their chi and making it his own. But the hunter becomes the hunted when a mysterious woman enters his life. A martial artist herself, she belongs to a long line of Keepers: women who are warriors, healers and protectors. When Dragonfly targets the man she loves, she sets out to defeat him. It becomes a fight to the death in which love is both the greatest weakness and the biggest prize.