 The vampires accept joyfully, but destroy themselves upon regaining the ability to see themselves for what they had become.An epilogue, set nearly a century later, reveals that Carlsen has used the techniques of benevolent energy transference he learned via his encounters with the vampires to live an extraordinarily long life, and possibly (it is implied) to have achieved a kind of transcendence upon his death.The "Chicago Sun-Times" regarded the novel as "Thoroughly intriguing", while the "Chicago Tribune" called it a "new slant on horror...unique rendering of the age-old enigma of the kiss of death."