Publisher's Synopsis
Returning to the family ranch to attend his mother's funeral, Cooper learns his deceased father once led a secret life by engaging in an intimate relationship with his doctor. Unknown to the family, the relationship exposed the family's secret of ancient artifacts in hidden caves on the ranch-artifacts that originated half a world away. After learning of the artifacts, the greedy doctor decides to do anything-including murder-to gain possession of the ranch and keep the treasure of the artifacts for himself. At the funeral, Cooper is reunited with his first love, India. As disappearances and a bloodbath of mutilations in the area begin occurring, Cooper is forced to reveal the family's buried secret. He tells his dying great uncle, Travis-and India-that the family has been connected by an ancient covenant to a lost civilization living inside the caves on the ranch. For thousands of years, elite people of great wealth and stature from around the world have journeyed to an eternal spring within the caves to purchase everlasting life from the beast who guarded a hidden shrine. The elite would pay a king's ransom to disappear into the immortality of a lost Utopia and never-ending life within the confines of the caves. A nightmare of starvation and bloodlust was the punishment for whoever dared to leave. As an extended drought sweeps across the land, a beast claws to the surface from a hidden cave in search of food for a starving colony of creatures. Now, faced with starvation, the strongest creatures and guardians of the artifacts from the lost civilization are forced to hunt beyond the ranch's boundaries in search of human flesh to feed the colony. Hoping to preserve the life of the colony until the rains come again to replenish the life-giving water supplying the eternal spring, the creatures relentlessly prowl the night. Travis rallies from his deathbed and leads Cooper and India deep into the caves to confront the beasts, hoping to destroy the entrance and forever seal the horror inside. In a final unholy showdown with the creatures, the brave trio never foresee the surprising turn of events which ultimately change the outcome of it all.
