Colonel Ethan Pendleton is the commander of Fort Davis, a United States cavalry post on the far reaches of the West Texas frontier. He is a man haunted by the memory of a murdered wife, the ghosts of massacred and mutilated men, and the spirits of brutalized enemies. For fifteen years his nocturnal specters have visited his dreams, but they have never taken up residency until now.
Doctor Andersen, the Colonel’s friend and post physician, prescribed the old fashion remedy of forgiveness. But Colonel Pendleton was too far gone for that. He had surrendered sword and soul to violence and vengeance. By the summer of 1880 his humanity had nearly been eaten through. He felt like a jack-o-lantern, scooped out, its substance removed and tossed aside. His nighttime companions judged him for his inhumanity and compelled him to continuing doing the devil’s business the devil’s way—to punish those who took the life of his wife and the scalps of his men.
The Apache chief Victorio and his Chihennes were not responsible for Isabella Pendleton’s death, but they had killed Buffalo Soldiers and had taken scalps—and that’s all Colonel Pendleton needed to know. He was determined to bring Victorio to heel. But catching the ghost-like Apache proved to be as difficult as driving away his tortured memories, and the last thing the Colonel needed was to be saddled by the War Department with a rank-hungry Lieutenant who had no frontier experience. And yet, Lieutenant Dancy might prove to be the man who can bring peace to the Colonel’s troubled soul.
Blood Touching Blood probes the mystery of how violence begets violence, how the lust for vengeance hollows out the human soul, and whether one who gives himself over to such dark designs can find redemption.
ISBN 978-0-9838770-5-9 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-9838770-6-6 (ebook)
