federate States of America is a connoisseur of the various blood from wounded patients he samples after the battle. Finding one so intoxicating and perfect, he accidentally kills the patient in his ecstasy and then spends the next hundred and fifty years tracking down the young man's family, trying to duplicate that exquisite taste. His search leads him through many generations, where a descendant of the original patient is waiting... and there Crane finds his match in the most unlikely of victims.

Mark D. Wood lives in Indiana, where he collects old ghost and haunt tales and pairs them up to events in history. He has a healthy respect for things that go bump in the night and keeps his three golden retrievers close when the sun goes down.