Chapter 1

Cassy could hear the alarm going off. She dragged herself up from her bed and leaned over to shut off the alarm off. She barley got any sleep at all last night. Those damn nightmares again she thought. How they hunted her almost every night this past week. They only gotten worse as the week wore on, and they only happened the week of her birthday. Every year for last ten years. It was the same one, and it never changed. It played in her head like an old film running over and over in her head.

What she remembered of the nightmare was her as a young girl. She was eleven, her, her mother and her mother's familiar were running from someone. Her mother always looked the same in her dreams, or at least what she could remember of her. Her mother Tess, stood only 5 foot tall; she had dark brown hair, pulled back, she was wearing dark jeans and a T-shirt and she wore a worn out black leather jacket. Also, in Cassy's dreams was her mother's familiar Calcifer. He was large black raven with very human eyes, and was always by her mother's side. He was always over protective of Tess and Cassy.

In Cassy's dream her and her mother were trying to make it to her mothers home town. Tess has sent Calcifer on ahead to let her grandmother and aunts know they were coming home, and needed help.

Cassy could see the welcome to new haven sign. She knew that they would be safe once they reached the town line. Her mother's always said that the town was protected by powerful magic barriers.

Her mother and her sisters all grew up in this town, raised by Cassy's grandmother Cora Hartford. Cassy's whole family were witches and shape shifters. Born and raised in the art of mastering their magic, and powers. When a witch would come into their power they would then be destined to meet their familiars. It was a rite of passage to have a familiar for a witch or warlock. The two would be bond together by magic and become part of each other.

It was Cassy's family the Hartfords who were the first family that settled in New Haven. A small town that sat on the bay near the water in South Carolina.

Their ancestor was a powerful witch, a leader who was born as the most powerful of them all, a grand white witch. A good witch who used her powers for the greater good. And not use her magic for selfish and dark reasons. Her name was Anna Maria, and she cast a protective spell around the land. Anyone or anything that meant harm to them would be caught in the barrier, and the spell would cast them back out.

Over the centuries New Haven became a home to not just witches but all manner of creatures and beings. It become a safe haven for those who were outcasts looking for a home. There were shape shifters, werewolves, pixies, fairies, and even some vampires that left their coven looking for peace. There were all beings that were only thought up in stories.

Cassy had heard stories from her mother about this town, and she couldn't wait for one day to see it. Also, to get to know her mothers family. In the last few years that Cassy could remember she and her mother never stayed in one place for to long. She never really had a place to call home. Her mother said it was for their own protection to keep moving. But she wouldn't say who or what was after them.

All Cassy knew was that her mother would place a powerful magical barrier around each place they have stayed over the last 6 years. The last home that they lived in was a small cottage at the edge of a small town near the ocean in northern Carolina. Cassy and her mother were happy there for awhile. Until one day Cassy noticed a tall man; in black jeans, t shirt, biker boots and brown leather jacket hanging around their neighborhood. She told her mother Tess about it, and her mother became paranoid that he was after them. Even Calcifer became worried over this stranger. Cassy kept asking who the man was and if it had anything to do with Cassy's father. Something her mother was always avoiding telling her. Tess was afraid that one day Cassy would learn of who her father was, and the prophecy that she was told about the child she would have. That prophecy was about Cassy.