Wes has been a compulsive reader since childhood. It's an addiction like any other -- he craves books, loves them, can't live without them. So when his former colleague Adrian O'Flaherty comes to town and invites Wes along to a highly secret auction of rare occult books, Wes can't say no.

What Wes doesn't know is that Adrian is looking for more than dusty old tomes at the auction. He's out for revenge. Before the Watchers Council was destroyed, a man named Rutherford Circe stole a number of rare books from the council's libraries -- and killed the librarian, Adrian's father, in the process.

At the auction, Wes buys a box of old books that holds one of the most famous books of magick ever collected. The Red Compendium is known for totally absorbing it readers -- and Wes, always a sucker for compelling literature, couldn't put its down if he wanted to.