Before Toushell could cast his fireball Phoebe threw the hammer at him. It struck him in the wrist and he grabbed his arm howling in pain as the fireball was extinguished. He let the arm fall to his side. The strange misshapen angle at which his wrist hung showed that it was broken.
"Nice try," he said wincing through the pain. "But I still have one good hand. And you're out of weapons."
"I wouldn't say that exactly," said Piper as she brought her hands up.
Instead of casting her power at the demon she cast it at the roof over its head. The ceiling exploded showering Toushell with debris. Instead of attacking, Toushell had to turn to protect himself from the falling debris. Suddenly Paige reached out.
"Wood," she said and a large jagged portion of the shattered ceiling suddenly began to orb.
Just as quickly Paige redirected the piece of wood at the demon. It struck the demon in the chest impaling it immediately. Toushell howled in pain and anger as he was vanquished in a conflagration. Within seconds he was vanquished and the sisters and Leo stood in the church alone.
"Nice move there, sis," Piper said to Phoebe.
"I didn't see I had much choice," said Phoebe. "He said something about that ring protecting him. But I missed. I was aiming for his head."
"Well your aim was good enough," said Paige. "And he was right about that ring. Neither Piper's explosive power nor my orbing ability worked against him. He said something about the ring being enchanted to protect against magic."
"So what happened to the ring?" Phoebe asked.
"Probably vanquished with him," said Leo. "Good thing, too. That was a very dangerous thing for a demon to have."
"Come on," said Piper. "Let's get back to the manor. I think I've had my fill of demons for one day."
Together, Leo and Paige orbed them all back home.
"So," said Paige after they were comfortably back at the manor, "what gave you the idea for the mirrors?"
"The club," said Phoebe.
"The club?" Piper questioned.
"Yeah," said Phoebe. "Remember when you first opened it? We started out by sitting at the bar. Then after a couple of days we moved to a booth. Do you remember why we did that?"
"Sure," said Piper. "It's more private."
"True," said Phoebe. "But we also got tired of seeing ourselves reflected in the mirrors. If you sit at just the right spot you're sitting directly between two of the mirrors. I remember noticing once that the reflections of those two mirrors seem to go on and on. Like they would reflect each other forever."
"Pretty smart," said Leo. "I guess that's what the priest meant when he said you had to go beyond eternity."
"That's what I thought, too," said Phoebe. "You said the gargoyles were created when the demons set two mirrors opposite each other. That's probably what made them so powerful. The magic was cast into one mirror and reflected to the other one which them reflected it back. Theoretically, that could go on forever."
"Which is why they were so hard to vanquish," said Paige. "Any damage done to them would be restored because of the magic created by the mirrors. Shattering one mirror normally wouldn't have affected the other one. But I guess with the gargoyle between them they reflected his magic. By shattering one the damage was reflected to the other one which reflected it back and so on."
"What I don't understand," Leo said, "is that potion you created, Piper. Basically it was nothing more than a smoke bomb."
"That was all Phoebe's idea," said Piper. "She figured if she was right about the mirrors the gargoyle would try to get away as soon as he saw the first one. The smoke potion was just used to blind it long enough for you to get the second mirror in place."
"And the hammer from your toolbox was the perfect choice for shattering the first mirror," said Phoebe. "Oh, I forgot to pick it up after the fight."
"No problem," said Leo smiling. "I can pick another one up at the hardware store. Smoke bombs, mirrors, and hammers. I would never have thought you'd be able to vanquish a demon with those."
"It was a very special kind of demon," said Phoebe. "Thank God there was only one of them."
"Which reminds me," said Paige. "Both you and Toushell said there were other gargoyle eggs out there. Any idea how many and where they are?"
"Well," said Leo, "as far as the Elders can determine, there are between five and twelve eggs unaccounted for. As for where they are, your guess is as good as theirs. Unless they come into proximity with magic they're just inert eggs. And as you saw, they don't even look like real eggs. They're probably in someone's collection somewhere. At least they're with innocents. If they weren't they would have hatched by now and we'd be facing other gargoyles."
"Let's hope it stays that way," said Piper. "I don't want to face one of those again."
"Hear, hear," said Phoebe. "One was more than enough for me. Hey, who's up for some ice cream?"
As they went into the kitchen, Leo thought about the other eggs still out there. They were safe for now. But it was likely that at some time in the future a witch or demon or other magical being would come into possession of one of them. That would start the incubation period.
This one had hatched so quickly only because of the power of the Charmed Ones. With an ordinary witch or demon it would take weeks, even months or years, for the magic to cause it to hatch. But eventually it would hatch. And until it did, they could do nothing but wait and hope.
The End
If you've enjoyed this story, you can find more "Charmed" stories at my website, You can also post your own "Charmed" stories if you like to write fan fiction.
I would also like to announce the publication of my first book, "Outlander: Book One Of The Forgotten Powers Saga". You can find out about this book by going to my website geocities . com / Aramath which also has a link to the publishers for you to order it.