"The Kiss of Bugg-Shash"

by Brian Lumley
originally published Cthulhu 3: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Spectre Press, 1978

Ray Nuttall and Bart Alan, the protagonists of "Demoniacal", run off to find an occultist to help them get rid of The Black One, which they accidentally conjured up in the earlier story.  They get stuck with Thomas Millwright, and apparently third-rate expert with a questionable rep (mercifully, Titus Crow and Henri Laurent DeDoormat are still MIA since Crow's house got blown away, so we are at least spared Crow's insufferable presence).

Millwright educates da boyz that The Black One is Bugg-Shash, another Great Old One and, needless to say, bad news all around.  And he won't leaver until he gets someone to slobber slime all over and thus kill, an attack known as his "kiss".

Millwright spends some time researching in The Usual Books and then the three flit back to Ray's flat to do an exorcism.  Which apparently works.  But, while leaving, Millwright warns them that the banishment is only "unto death", but fails to explain what that might mean....

Ray and Bart return to their normal lives, until one night, Bart shows up with the news that Millwright has been killed in an accident.  What was that thing about "unto death"?  They soon find out as Millwright, now a zombie under control of Bugg-Shash, shows up, and 
Buggsy finally gets his kiss.

For whatever reason, Lumley's was hugely inspired by Sutton's "Demoniacal" and felt compelled to write this sequel.  "Demoniacal" was an okay story and so is this one, and the ending has an amusing E.C. comics feel to it (which is really Lumley's strong point anyway).  Nothing special here but nothing awful either.