<P><B>Matthew Reilly meets <I>Van Helsing</I> in this insanely, relentlessly fast-paced series about the witch hunters who protect us from the forces of evil—any way they can </B><P>The year is 1666 and the forces of darkness are spreading across Europe. Dreaming of wielding a blade in epic battles like the father he never knew, Jakob von Drachenfels falsifies a letter of introduction to join the Hexenjäger—an elite military order of witch hunters. He soon learns a lesson in the dangers of ambition when he finds himself selected for a team sent to recover a biblical relic from a witch-infested castle. But when the team is betrayed from within, what was already a difficult mission turns into a desperate struggle for survival.