The Initiation of Eddie Edwards

When Eddie Edwards, a professor at a graduate seminary, receives three unknown gospels smuggled out of the Vatican Archives by a Jesuit scholar who is subsequently murdered, he gathers a group of colleagues to begin translating them, in the course of which he meets a hereditary Italian Witch, Andrea Peregrino. The group's work is attacked from the beginning. When their lives are threatened, Eddie and Andy flee for refuge to a commune north of San Francisco, where they begin their relationship. With the help of an Italian police officer, the physical danger is averted, but while Andy is introducing Eddie to her intellectual world, the attacks continue on another level. Finally, Eddie asks to be initiated into Andy's coven and so learns the secret that the Italian Witches have been guarding for centuries.