Elijah's family is savagely butchered while he lies helpless, forced to witness the carnage until a vicious blow to the head mercifully ends his agony. But at some point during that terrible night he is baptized in blood and birthed into immortality. As his body rises once more, his mind and heart solidify with a clear and immutable purpose: to hunt down the beings responsible for his loved ones' deaths and destroy them, whatever the cost. Since everything pure and sacred has been ripped from his soul, a great abyss now separates Elijah from his humanity. He is driven by blood lust, the ever-present mountain of rage that provokes him to kill any and all who get in his way. Unable to understand why he alone was spared, for nearly a millennium he journeys to the far corners of the earth in search of answers, and the revenge he so desperately needs. As his quest nears its end, he meets a young woman who cleaves through his hate and touches the man deeply buried beneath it, tempting him to reopen the doors to his heart. When she is abducted by the same beings who killed his family, Elijah realizes to stand alone may cost more than he is willing to sacrifice-her life. He faces the battle he has spent lifetimes preparing for...knowing that, in order to save her, he will have to surrender not only his revenge, but the very force that keeps him alive.