Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Vampire Affairs (The Bagsy Chronicles 4)

It All Goes Wrong

The acting troupe turned mute in an instant, their heads swivelling like owls to look at Mezrielda as she walked into the room. Greenda was a few paces behind.

Her mind was already mapping out the next few moves. What would the acting troupe do? How could she respond? She wouldn't have time to cast the stone transfiguration spell before she was hit with a killing curse so her first move was to throw the sealable substance onto the ground at her feet. It burst out in spiky structures, forming into a towering stalagmite on the floor and blocking the flashes of green that had been hurled her way.

Sealable substance could block the killing curse, then, like any wall or column could. She pushed the thought of how that could have gone very wrong from her mind. There would be time to panic later.

A crystal shot past Mezrielda's head as Greenda threw it at the acting troupe. Then another. There were more flashes of green and Mezrielda and Greenda stayed ducked behind the formation the sealable substance had expanded too.

'We need to get to Bagsy,' Greenda said.

'Really?' Mezrielda grit out dryly. 'I hadn't realised.' She lurched out from behind the structure, pointing her wand at the tiled wall on the other side of the room and hoping to Merlin it had stone beneath it. 'Rocushift!' she bellowed, pushed every ounce of magic she had into her spell.

Crackles of power surged down her arm and into her wand that sung from the energy. There was a popping noise, a gush of light, and then the wall snapped like a Venus fly trap. It closed around half of the acting troupe and buried them from view.

Mezrielda threw another orb of sealable substance at her feet and ducked down as a chorus of 'Avada kedavra!' and green jets of light shot towards her like lightning. She took a second to breathe. She'd used more magic than she'd ever used before. The power behind her spell had been something else entirely. The power of the corvid family was rushing through her blood. It certainly wasn't bad news.

Mezrielda looked at Greenda, who was stuck behind the first sealable substance formation as green jets of light struck the front of it. Philip was walking towards Greenda, intent on rounding the obstacle.

Greenda grabbed a vial from her pocket and threw it over the formation. It shattered on the floor at Philip's feet. He coughed uncontrollably, his flat cap falling off from his violent jerks.

'Why aren't you healing?' one of the stunt workers asked as Philip moved away from the acidic potion.

'I'm trying,' he hissed. 'It's those damn crystals! Clear them up!'

Mezrielda stepped out from behind her cover and pointed her wand at the painting on the ceiling. She'd intended to transfigure it into acid or lava or something to fall on the acting troupe but, with a sense of dread, realised she hadn't relearnt the spells to do that.

Cursing at her own stupidity, she ducted down behind the stalagmite as the acting troupe cleared away the crystal dust with their wands.

'Mezrielda!' Greenda called to her, gesturing at the talk-board. Mezrielda looked down. Someone had desperately scrawled help. A second later, the letter E appeared.

'Emmeline,' Mezrielda realised.

They really were running out of time.

'Fuck this.' Mezrielda stepped out from behind the formation, pointing her wand at the acting troupe. They'd try and hit her with more killing curses, but that didn't matter. As she began to cast her spell, her other hand was already throwing down another sealable substance.

'Avada kedavra!' Philip ground out like a hissing snake, a jet of green shooting like a spear at her.

It burst into dust on the sealable substance that formed, just in time, in front of Mezrielda, who'd let it solidify around her hand, so that the tip of her wand was poking through it at the moment it completed a spell movement.