Child of Shadows — John Coyne

When the time is right…
when the place is right…
Evil is born.

Melissa Vaughn is a social worker who has turned her back on the cold heartlessness of modern big-city bureaucracy. Adam is a feral child, a refugee from the murky, violent world of New York's subway tunnels. Together, Melissa and Adam flee to the natural sanctuary of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.

There, thanks to his artistic gifts, Adam reveals to Melissa a secret nightmarish past she has long struggled to repress. There, Adam becomes the Chosen One of a fanatical religious cult. There, Adam will introduce Melissa to the evil that dwells in every human soul.

And the death and mutilations -- as mysterious as they are horrifying -- begin…