Free Where All Souls Meet by S. E. Campbell Page B

didn't have anything to do with this."
    There was the sound of more rumbling and an unearthly, evil scream filled the air. Eden yelped and was thrown against the wall. She stared up and saw Lamashtu's face had become, if possible, even angrier, and for once, the anger was not aimed at her.
    "Pazuzu," Lamashtu said. "I would recognize her voice anywhere. Why is she here?"
    "Pazuzu. Who is Pazuzu?" Eden asked, eyes wide. A new demon could mean trouble.
    "Ha. You don't know her." Lamashtu smirked with pleasure. "A dog face. Weak, fanged creature. I'm much stronger."
    Lamashtu spun and headed over to the window. Eden hesitated and then took the chance to sneak over to the threshold and halted there. Lamashtu stared out the window and into the endless night. Pazuzu screamed again outside of the dungeon, a loud, angry wail.
    " Her ," Lamashtu said. "She is here to mock me."
    The demon turned around and stared Eden straight in the eye. Eden shivered, not sure of her fate.
    "You…" Her captor sighed. "I cannot leave because of you."
    Once again, Pazuzu roared. An idea sparked in Eden's head.
    "She sounds pretty strong. I would be too scared to escape, if she was guarding me," she said. "I can hear it in her roar."
    "I know," Lamashtu said. "If you weren't here right now, I'd…"
    "You could take me outside with you," Eden said. "You could watch me and destroy her."
    For a second, Lamashtu wrinkled her giant lion-muzzle.
    "Why would you want me to destroy her?" Lamashtu asked. "You want to escape, don't you? Like I'd let it happen."
    A deep, hoarse growl echoed throughout the room followed by the sound of banging down below. Eden heard odd clicking noises coming from outside of the building. She gripped the wall for support and glanced around. The shaking grew and then a deafening roar filled her ears. From over Lamashtu's shoulder, Eden saw bright orange flames lick part of the wall. Pazuzu had set the place ablaze. Lamashtu may have been able to survive flames, but Eden knew it would deplete her spirit energy, effectively ending her existence. Fearful, she stole a look at the stairs and then groaned.
    "Pazuzu," Lamashtu said. "Our lord is going to be unhappy if his plan is bungled because of her. Maybe she'll even be strung up by her fangs for two hundred years. Come with me, human."
    Lamashtu appeared in front of Eden in a flash and then began to drag her down the stairs. Eden’s arm burned where the demoness gripped her and heat came pouring in from all sides. The stairs groaned under foot and she wondered whether it would be the last thing she would ever hear.
    Lamashtu yanked Eden toward the door at the bottom of the stairs, which was already aflame, and slammed her fist against the door. The smoldering wood crumbled beneath her demonic blow. A moment later, Lamashtu hauled Eden out into the perpetual night. In the distance, Eden could make out the glow of lanterns and saw figures holding them. She dragged her eyes away from the lanterns when a black blur came from the right. A figure began to morph from the darkness, becoming larger and larger. The darkness fell away like a cloak, revealing a monstrous being beneath. The figure was hideous, even more hideous than Lamashtu.
    Twelve foot tall Pazuzu had the panting head of a pit bull with two red-rimmed eyes that bulged like billiards from her head, a long scorpion's tail, and four greasy black bat wings. She let out an angry growl when she saw them. Her whip-like tail snapped the air. A horrible stench surrounded the demon, similar, yet different at the same time, to what Eden had smelled on other demons.
    When Eden was eight, she had visited her next-door neighbor, Cecile, in the hospital when she got cancer. She remembered the pungent scent in Cecile's room. It was the smell of illness, the same smell draped around Pazuzu. A red mist floated around her new nemesis, and Eden had not doubt that had she been alive, she would have been struck with plague, her skin