Midnight Magic

Chapter 8

  "Just prick your finger with the nib, and sign your names on the dotted line. You'll notice that Phoebe has already signed it. Isn't that right, my love?" said the Prince.

"Yes, my king," said Phoebe, looking and sounding hypnotized.

Piper, Paige, and Black Rose each pricked one of their fingers and signed their names on the contract. Their powers floated over to the Vampire Prince, who ingested them. He then handed over the little girl.

"It has been a pleasure doing business with you," he said.

"Black Roses, charge!" exclaimed the Vampire Queen.

The Prince put up a force field around himself, Phoebe and Lisa.

Leo orbed in front of a unicorn on the carousel, let a vampire minion run at him at full speed, and orbed away at the last second, impaling him on the unicorn's horn, where he exploded into dust.

Paige, Piper and Black Rose fought the minions as well. Piper grabbed the wooden mallet from a strength tester game and impaled a vampire with it.

Before her sisters could prevent it from happening, Phoebe bit Lisa.

Immediately after Phoebe sunk her teeth into Lisa's neck, the powers of Piper, Paige, and Elsie floated through the air. The Prince stood up, jumped off the platform, and literally ran after them.

Piper snatched back her freezing power.

Paige reached up and grabbed the power coming towards her. Then she called "Piper's explosive power!" and orbed it to the Prince.

The Prince looked confused for a moment, but then grinned wickedly.

"What are you doing?" asked Elsie, terror in her voice.

"Trust us!" exclaimed Piper.

The Prince threw his hands back.

"Now, Piper!" yelled Paige.

Piper froze the Prince.

"Tent!" Paige called. The big yellow tent orbed around her, Piper, Elsie, and the Prince. The Vampire Prince unfroze and exploded.

"What was that?" asked Elsie.

"This tent has an enchantment on it; any magic that occurs within it is automatically reversed," explained Piper.

"But, the contract; it said we couldn't vanquish him if he gave us the little girl."

"The contract said wewould not vanquish him. It didn't mention anything about him vanquishing himself. Where is the little girl?" asked Paige.

"She might be in the fray!" said Piper.

"No. Remember, the book said if you killed the king, you kill them all," said Elsie.

"Okay, so all we need to do is vanquish the Queen and get the other Black Roses back to their senses and back home," said Paige.

"Actually, if you defeat the Queen, their senses will come back automatically," said the little girl.

"Wow. What an easy clean-up tonight. Hi, sweetie. What's your name?" Piper asked the little girl, who was now free of the Prince's clutches.

"It's Sarah, and thank you for saving my life."

"Hey, it's what we do," said Paige modestly.

"Oh, my gosh! Phoebe!" exclaimed Piper. "It's one minute to midnight!

The four of them ran over to Phoebe, who lay on top of the platform. Elsie retrieved a piece of paper from her pocket, unfolded it, and Piper and Paige started to chant:

"Spirits from the other side,

Turn back to normal this evil bride

For a vampire she's been mistaken,

With this spell, she will awaken."

Phoebe's eyes went from red, to glowing, to brown. She looked around.

"What happened? Why am I wearing a wedding dress?" said Phoebe.

"Great, that's two sisters in the span of twenty-four hours who have lost their memories," said Piper.

"Long story short? You were kidnapped by a vampire prince who took our powers and made you his queen," explained Paige.

"How did you get your powers back?" asked Phoebe.

"Well, when you bit Lisa, it made you into a vampire. And the contract was for the dissolution of the powers of the Charmed Ones, not the new Vampire Queen. And, since it's all or none when evil tries to steal our powers, the contract became null and void," explained Piper.

"I see; you got him to break his own deal. And how did you defeat him?"

"You can thank our new friend for that," said Paige.

"Our new friend?"

"Yes. A mister Slappy the Clown," said Piper.

"But, what about her?"

Phoebe walked over to Lisa's body. Or rather, Lisa's corpse.

"Oh, Phoebe honey..." said Piper in a gentle voice.

"I did this, didn't I?" asked Phoebe, terror in her eyes.

"You didn't mean to," said Paige.

Phoebe knelt down beside Lisa. She held up her head and wrapped her arms around her, then started to cry.