Antagonist's Story: Cassandra Tilley

Cassandra Tilley looked at assembled women and shook her head. Only a month earlier, she had learned that she was a witch, a woman who could control nature by use of magic. Cassandra was 18 and would be the youngest of the 13 who comprised the coven. Her mother Alicia had given her a book, a historical tome of the Tilley women and the others who comprised the coven.

She knew she was different. Animals, especially cats, dogs, and birds, would be friendly towards her. She could tell when the weather would change and what it would change to. Cassandra could “tell” animals what to do, where to go.

Nervously, she walked into the open field wearing only a virginal white cloak, escorted by her mother and grandmother, Mariam Tilley. Ten women, whose ages she couldn’t judge, circled a stone altar, white-gray and elevated above a small campfire. Like her, they were dressed in white cloaks.

“Why do we need to wear these?” she whispered to her mother.

“It shows are closeness to nature,” Cassandra was told.

“I like it.”

The three took steps forward and crossed a white circle. This signaled for her, her family, and the others to let their coverings drop to the ground. She was welcomed by the coven’s head, a woman she knew very well, having had her as a teacher throughout her Catholic elementary school days.

“Welcome, Cassandra,” Sister Laura said. “Welcome to our coven.”



She sat on the forest floor and listened to the sounds of the night, with her ears and with her inner senses. Cassandra Tilley had learned much since her inclusion into the Charlottestown Coven. Twenty years ago, she was welcomed into the sisterhood of witches, a naïve young woman, and now she was a valued member.

She had only increased her animal manipulation gift. She had only increased her ability to listen to those animals and the “children of the night”. It was through her father, a vampire named Bartholomew Mandrake, that she was born with another ability: She could speak to wolves and coyotes. She could also find other vampires and werewolves. Right now, she was hearing the howling of lycans. And what she was hearing was not good for the coven.

Someone knew the location of three pieces of Iscariot Silver, and he was not someone with whom to be trifled.

Sebastian Wright was the young man’s name, and he was very well protected.