Unlike Mare, Dee has never really felt settled in Salem’s Fork. She’s never felt settled anywhere. As a child she was dragged along with her parents wherever they were doing personal appearances, and since sixteen she and her sisters have been on the run from Xan. Salem’s Fork was originally just another convenient hiding place. They’ve stayed longer than anywhere else, stuck in a holding pattern, it seems to her. Her sisters aren’t doing what she–as big sister–believes they should to move on, and she’s caught in a job that is suffocating her. And since Dee knows Xan is still out there, she knows it’s just a matter of time before they have to move on. So she knows better than to get attached.

But she does. It’s such a comfortable, comforting kind of place, really small-town America. And although she spends all her public time in town hiding–either behind a bland gray business suit or shapeshifted into a myriad life forms–she has come to think of Salem’s Fork as a haven. She works in the Third Virginia Bank and has lunch at the Greasy Fork. (Now that there’s alcohol, she has drinks there, too). She’s friends enough with the town’s detective that she uses him to do a background check on Danny when he shows up. She’s created a safe zone inside the little house she and the sisters rent in town. She’s built an art studio on the second floor where she can literally let her hair down as she creates unique artwork based on her impressions of the town and its surroundings. She’s grown to know the people and be accepted by them. Even more important to her, her sisters have found a place where they’re accepted. And tucked away on a mountain just outside of town, she’s found a place she considers holy.

Salem Mountain rises abruptly on the other side of the river. At the edge of the cliffs overlooking town, under an oak tree, stands an ancient stone circle most people don’t notice anymore. Dee loves to stand in the center of the circle. To her there is ancient power there. And there could well be. Legend has it that witches once danced there on full moons. When Dee finally decides to lose her virginity, that’s where she decides to do it, with spectacular results. It’s the viewpoint from which she paints many of her works.
Maybe Salem’s Fork isn’t the place Dee considers home. But it’s been good to her and her sisters, and for that it will always have a special place in her heart.