As a newly created Guardian, deposited in Dark-Age Europe, Joe serves an itinerant metalsmith's family, and falls deeply in love-until a treacherous prince uses that love to force him to commit the most unforgiveable of sins.
Robbed of everyone he ever loved, stripped of his Guardian status, Joe turns avenging angel, leaving a gory trail of payback in his wake. But one ray of hope pierces his torment...a path to redemption through the deepest, darkest pits of the Underworld, where he'll drown in a river of blood-or wear it like a badge of honor.