“I love you, sister,” Sally finally said to KerriAnne.

From behind her, Jesse gave a murmur which might have been approval from his tender heart. Kerri nodded excitedly, tilted her head sweetly to the side.

“But you…” Sally started. She felt Lavinia beside her, Walter behind her, two vampires who were not at all like KerriAnne. With superhuman effort, she said to her sister, “You, you’ve always been a vampire.

“And so,” she finished, voice catching, "You're not welcome in my home."

Kerri crumpled and put dainty hands over her ears. Her face was so ashen and forlorn that Sally’s will dissolved and she ran to embrace her. She had healed Lavinia with her love and now she would heal little Carrie. The barrier did not follow her because her home with Lavinia was only wherever they were together.

She gathered little Carrie into her arms, unshed tears making ribbons of pain through every limb. But icy hands grabbed her from all sides. “Let her go, let her go, she’s mine!!” Kerri shrieked, clinging to Sally and opening her mouth wide to bite or to kiss or to scream.

The hands yanked and pushed indecisively. Sally heard running footsteps.

“Wherever we’re together is our home!” a harsh voice rang in her ear and then the only hands holding her were Lavinia’s. The barrier pushed the others out.

“Darling wife, darling, darling wife,” Lavinia’s husky voice crooned, rocking her. “Can’t save everybody, darling wife. Gotta let her go, you gotta let her go.”

From Lavinia’s arms, Sally faced her lost little sister across a space so narrow and so deep that it could never be crossed. Behind Kerri stood the nun, her face radiant with some revelation.

And behind her, the haunted teen, stake ready, took a shaky step toward where Kerri cowered against the invisible wall. All the other vampires were frozen statues.

The boy strode awkwardly forward. Sally knew that a sharp word from her would stop him.

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He was several steps away. She still had time to speak.

Lavinia’s arms were around her, supporting her in whatever she chose. She sensed Jesse and Walter moving to stand at her side, Walter supportively behind Jesse, his face buried in Jesse’s shoulder.

When Lavinia dragged Bunt to the door of the comics shop, Sally had watched her feed him to the vampires, relieved that the choice was taken from her hands. Now, Jeremy was two feet from the sister who had been a burden to her every day for a thousand years and she didn’t know what to do.

There must be some way to save her!

She wanted to believe this. She had to believe this.

“Boss,” Kerri called from a great, great depth.

“Darling,” Sally whispered back, looking one last time on the face of her sister, treasuring it, knowing she would never see it again.

But when she said “Darling,” Jeremy stopped, looking at her in anguished indecision, his face pleading. Behind him, the nun walked up, tears gleaming in her caring brown eyes. Was she readying herself to take the stake from his hand?

Hating herself, crying, begging forgiveness from a God in whom she had never believed, Sally nodded to Jeremy, a harsh, sharp little nod.

Jesse gasped. Walter murmured against Jesse’s neck. KerriAnne misunderstood and flashed Sally a sweet playful smile that pierced her heart. Even Jeremy looked disappointed in her. The stake lowered…

In the end it was Malcolm, determined to protect the people under his care, who took the stake from a tormented, confused Jeremy and stabbed it into KerriAnne with all the force which a former football player gone slightly to seed could muster.

Her body jolted, quivered. Her face crumpled in despair, as if she had lost every hope. She hit the pavement with a smack and lay on her back, empty eyes staring up.

Desperately Sally watched to see her expression become peaceful in death, but that soul-searing empty anguish never faded.

And now Sister Amanda walked to the edge of the barrier and calmly past it, knelt and took Kerri’s body in her arms. The vampires did not touch her as she closed the horror-filled eyes. “Sister!” several shocked voices said at once.

“I understood immediately,” she said, looking with compassionate acceptance at the two vampires and their human beloveds, and especially at Sally Yan, who felt like a part of her had been ripped away.

Sister Amanda said to Lavinia. “When you said that wherever you were with your beloved was your home, I realized that I am always with my Beloved.” A slight shy dip of her eyes conveyed the extra message: I’m not intending to force you to believe what I believe.

Jeremy, mouth working, looked at his empty, twitching hands. The nun smoothed KerriAnne’s sad little face into a semblance of peace. Jesse (who wanted to save everybody) shook in Walter’s arms.

But Sally was lost in pain, and in the comfort of strong supporting arms.

“Darling wife, darling wife,” the only voice that mattered whispered over and over.