Attending the Yaqui tribe’s Easter Ceremonies in Tucson should be a dream come true for a Cheyenne-wannabe-shaman like Mad Dog. But immediately after his midnight arrival, he is accused of being a witch. Then, moments later, a policeman is murdered, and Mad Dog is blamed. Suddenly Mad Dog and his wolf-hybrid, Hailey, are targets of a city-wide manhunt with shoot-first overtones. Mad Dog’s niece, Heather English, a part-time deputy for her father in Kansas, comes to Tucson to try to arrange a peaceful surrender or clear her uncle by finding the real killer. Back in Kansas, someone has blown Mad Dog’s house off the face of the Great Plains. Sheriff English, investigating that crime, learns Mad Dog has been playing a massive online computer game: War of Worldcraft. There, a vampire wizard has made a habit of tormenting him. Mad Dog claims the creature has reached out of the game to come after him in the real world. The sheriff isn’t convinced... until he begins receiving threats from a vampire wizard on his office computer. The ghost in the machine promises death for Mad Dog and explicit and horrible tortures for Heather. And all before dawn.