Dark memories from his past continuing to plague him Jack Sibley was on his way to spending a lengthy vacation with Kyle Steinbeck, his flatmate during their time together at Cambridge University. Kyle had finished his studies some eighteen months prior to Jack's graduation, becoming in the meantime an accomplished flyer with his own aeroplane. When he suggested they take advantage of it to explore South America, it was seemingly a dream come true.but the promised holiday of a lifetime was destined to go terribly wrong. Before setting off, they spent a few days with Kyle's family; his parents, two older brothers' and a younger sister, Julie, at their home in Nevada. It might have been for only a few days, but it was sufficient for the newly arrived Englishman to fall in love with the sister. Nothing wrong nor unexpected in that. It happens all the time.

The downside as far as they were concerned, Jack's permanent residence was some six-thousand miles away.hardly conducive to a blossoming romance. While dining at a restaurant in Oaxaca, Kyle cajoled Jack to unburden his problem, and was on the verge of proposing a solution when they were interrupted by a stranger.a stranger who cast no shadow. The man's arrival brought back stark memories of a time Jack Sibley wished he could forget, raising in him the fear it could happen all over again. It was more than two years since he became inadvertently entrenched in the heinous doctrines of black magic and Satanism but, although he managed to shed the shackles before it was too late, the past refused to leave him. Earlier, when visiting the remains of an ancient Mayan city, Kyle had purchased a small statuette from an odd little man who maintained he had found the effigy. According to the intruder however, this was not the case.

He insisted the statue had been stolen from him and he wanted it back, making it clear that he would broach no argument to that end. Kyle's refusal to comply with his demand culminated in their being subjected to continuous physical and mental persecution over a period of several weeks; their lives constantly at risk, nerves battered beyond despair. The foul adept of the left-hand path had no choice. He had made a pact with his Master.the Devil himself.