IONA MCGUIRE. To the denizens of Thunder Ridge, a ski resort in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, she is the eccentric, reclusive heiress to an international conglomerate. But unsuspected by them, she is a powerful sorceress. Throughout centuries in its native Scotland, the Clan McGuire had garnered respect, admiration, and fear. Clansmen's participation in the Crusades and internal Scottish wars gained the Clan great wealth. However, in the intensely Christian country, rumors of an alliance between the Clan and forces of the underworld fueled dangerous speculation about the source of the Clan's power. The rumors were true. Since the 1100s, a covenant with the Prince of Darkness had assured the survival and success of each consecutive Iona and the McGuire Clan, as long as the sacrifice of a young woman took place at forty-year intervals. In 1878, the Clan escaped the unwanted attention of the English Crown and rival clans by secreting its mistress, the eighth Iona, and her entourage to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. In 21st Century America, fulfillment of the ritual sacrifice had grown increasingly dangerous. Ken Barstow, a man of supernatural abilities, stands in the Clan's way, determined to shield his daughter from Iona McGuire's sorcery.