I was worried about my partner. Our talk would need to wait until I checked on Voluptia's state to resume. The car went  right to the hospital after a quick stop in my dormitory in the teacher's house to guard my equipment. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we didn't say anything.

Vol was my sole concern at that time. I could not think about anything else to say. 

We could now see the building of the hospital getting close.

The car was approaching  a large rectangular white building with a big red cross in the front wall.  From the window of the car I could see the wide transparent double doors of the entrance.

Seing that door made me more anxious than before. I could not take Voluptia off my mind anymore.

I had to see her, and fast...

Besides having told the good doctor that everything was ok, the truth was that I could not be one hundred percent sure.

And since I am such a control freak, I needed to be...

I knew that the interference of the spells was not a problem anymore. I was sure about that.

A spell is, in fact, an emanation of mana waves. So, it was clear to me that if those waves were not superposed anymore, there would be no more interference.

What worried me was the thought that Grotheske could have absorbed some of that mana before I knocked her out. That could make her more resistant to the confinement spell.

As a succubus, she also knew how to deal with mana waves and create her own spells.

I had to reach her soon and make sure to reinforce any countermeasures, that I knew, in order to avoid that. To have full control over her personas again.

Since I could not sense Grotheske in my mind when I thought about Vol, that was a very good sign. A sign that she was still dormant.

So, I still had the upper hand.

If she somehow surfaced again I would feel it right away.

That was the link between us. And was way stronger than even the spell binding her mean persona to Vol's fragile body.

We had our own waves connecting our minds together. Waves that did not mix with mana waves.

Our bond was made of emotional vibes: our shared and forbidden love...

Yes, I did love her. But I was so afraid of the consequences that she would have to deal with, that I avoided thinking about her as more than a partner and a friend. But, I was fooling myself, I could not be without her and I knew she felt the same way about me.

I looked at the doctor. I guessed how he would be dealing with all that happened. He was a brave and strong man.

In our first meeting, he showed a lot of courage. He accepted to be used as bait to lure the monster that was killing all his colleagues. And he never put his own safety before those that needed help.

Knowing how the doctor could react, I decided to not let him know how I was feeling. So, I pretended to be calm and just going to visit my friend without any other worries.

However, I am not sure if he bought that act. I only noticed that he was also anxious to see Voluptia. And he showed no sign of fear; even knowing that she had a beast inside her body.

Doctor Rochard was a very distinctive man and also a man of principles. He was very dedicated to his job. And that job was to save lives. So if he suspected that Voluptia became a possible menace to everyone in the school; he would have the clergy by her neck, in no time.

And I wanted to avoid a new inquisition, at all cost.

The doctor knocked on the glass that separated the rear from the driver's seat. The driver made the glass panel move down and exchanged some words with him.

I didn't pay much attention. The hospital building was getting closer.

I looked up to the sky as in search of some kind of signal. There was not a single dark cloud in the sky. It was a very bright winter's morning. No fog, no sign of rain; but a strong wind moving the leaves of the nearby trees. I looked at a few men that were working in the grass and sweeping the sidewalks.

In a very restrict school like that, it was very common to not find many people in the streets; even during the day. The exception of one or another member of the maintenance team. All of them were using very heavy winter uniforms with hoods to protect themselves from the cold air of the mountain. The thought of that cold made a small shiver pass my spine. I was not fond of cold weather.

If the hospital's building was not painted in white and had that usual red cross in the facade, I would never guess that we were arriving.

That building was not the usual kind of hospital. It was not a tall building with lots of floors. To call that place a hospital was, in fact, an exaggeration. It was more a kind of treatment center. A center that was used since the old days of the property. Tuberculosis's treatment center that grew to include the school's medic staff and was now funded by that same school. A building that was older than the school itself. It had only one floor. A line of equally spaced green windows was the only decoration on the sides of the enormous building. It was all very rustic and very simple. More like an old longhouse than a hospital.

That building was another of the preserved buildings of the local antiquity. Probably, one of the oldest buildings in the school. I imagined that it would be as old as the teacher's house or, maybe, as old as the church, that we saw before.

The car moved towards the entrance of the parking lot. However, by my surprise, it was not going straight to the front entrance. Instead, it skirted the building and parked in a small garage behind it.

I supposed that we would avoid the reception and go straight to her room since the doctor was the head of the hospital's staff.

I got out of the vehicle. Dr. Rochard as soon as he got out himself moved to the door of the car and leaned to the driver's window. He was probably giving some instructions that I could not hear. He then, moved by my side and made a gesture with the hand so that I should follow him very close.

We moved to the rear of the hospital. There we could see three narrow steps of a tiny stairway that lead to a wooden green door. The same color of the windows in the walls.

The doctor took his keys off his pocket and opened the green door.

"Voluptia is in the hospital's VIP rooms. Room 32", he said while opening the door and granting me passage.

I nodded and entered.

He closed the door after himself and lead the way to a large corridor in front of us.

It was a very long corridor full of doors by both sides. I could almost instantly feel that aseptic odor that is present in hospitals. Something like the smell of alcohol mixed together with lavender.

Since Vol's was in the VIP room we did not need to walk for long to find room 32. Just a few doors away from that rear entrance, we stopped in front of an open door with a small cross hanging in the wall above it. That cross was as simple as everything in that hospital. It was only a plain representation made of dark wood with no details at all.

We entered the room and it was very bright inside. I saw the open window and the room had a small TV fixed in one of the walls by a support.

As we passed the door and could see Voluptia's bed, I got astonished. Nothing in the world could have prepared me for what I was seeing.

She was very awake and sitting in the bed, using some pillows to support her tiny body. Her face opened in a smile the moment she saw me. Yet. her face was all covered in a brown stuff.

It was chocolate pudding.

In front of her was a moving table, the kind of table that is used to deliver meals. With a moveable arm and some wheels in it. We could see in the tray above that table a castle made of pudding pots. One pot above the other creating a tower that was hanging in a very unstable position.

With her face all dirty, with the chocolate covering her lower lips, the tip of her nose and part of her left cheek, she greeted me:

"Cupcake!! You finally arrived!! Why you didn't tell me that pudding is so delicious!! I can't stop eating this thing. I think I will start calling you pudding instead of cupcake or cheesecake. I am totally in love with it!!"

She was excited as if nothing had happened moments before. So happy that instead of making me feel calmer; I got even more scared.

The doctor was as baffled as I was. Just like me, he was trying to analyze the scene and understand what was happening.

I moved towards her. Not sure about what to do or what to say. I got a napkin from the tray and rubbed the soft paper in her face to clean it. Just like a mother would do to a baby that was playing with his food.

I looked at the doctor but he was also completely lost. He also never saw anything like that before.

I asked her about the pots:

"Sweetie! What is going on here? Where all those puddings pots came from?", the castle was very tall. She might have used about twenty pudding's pots piled above each other to make it.

I was addressing her when a male nurse gave a soft knock on the open door and entered the room with another tray full of puddings.

"Time for your medicine, miss Voluptia!!"

She clapped her hands in anticipation.

I gave her a puzzled look...

"Vol did you...?", I was starting to understand what was happening in that room. And I was not liking that at all.

"Aww pudding...this is so much tastier than those pills they wanted to give me...", she answered and pouted.

"Vol are you hypnotizing the staff so they would bring you more and more puddings instead of medicine?", I reached her with my mind since I didn't want to involve the doctor in that mess.

"Well...if you put that way...how can I deny it?", but as she was answering, she was already getting a spoon to eat another chocolate pudding.

"Do you want some?", this she said out loud, offering me and the doctor one of the three pots that the nurse had just put in the tray in front of her.

The doctor cornered the nurse almost shouting:

"Are you irresponsible? What do you think you are doing young man?", the doctor was angry. His face was red and he was about to scold the poor innocent man. He thought it was the nurse's doing.

I looked at him and I saved and escorted the nurse out of the room, pushing him very fast to the exit and closing the door right behind him.

"Don't worry nurse, the doctor is here now and he wants to examine the patient. So you can go check on the other patients while we are here. We will call if we need you. Bye bye..."

I was very ashamed. And my voice sounded pretty false.

The doctor looked at me.

"What was that?"

"You better sit and all will make sense in no time."

I was feeling the urge to sit, I must add that that was a very embarrassing situation.

I got the doctor by his hands and made him sit in the armchair that was by the side of Voluptia's bed.

"The staff is innocent, Dr. Rochard.", I started to explain, "It was her. I imagine that since Voluptia didn't like the pills, but it seems that she loved the pudding. She decided to rearrange things her own way...Am I right dear?"

She giggled and continued digging her pot.

"The nurses think that they were giving her medicine when they were, in fact, bringing her more desserts."

"Pudding is sooo much better", completed Vol with full conviction in her voice, and she pouted again.

The doctor didn't know if that was a good or a bad sign.

As for me, I didn't know if I collapsed in the other armchair and asked the universe to swallow me; or if I burst in nervous laughs.

I imagined that if we didn't do anything about that situation Voluptia would end up eating all the hospital's pudding. And feeling ok with that.

"Well sweetie, what you did is very wrong."

She looked at me, her face all dirty again and not really getting to the point of the situation.

I realized that there were still a lot of things that she needed to learn before living among us humans.

"What you did was not nice. First, you invaded people's mind without authorization. We already talked about that."

"But...", she tried to explain; however, I added:

"And second, did you realize that you are being a very bad girl and letting everyone else in the hospital get without their puddings? That you were being selfish."

She understood, her eyes widened for a moment and I noticed that she felt a bit ashamed.

It was working.

"I didn't know they were giving me the pudding of the other patients...", her face was honest what made me calm down and speak in a more soft tone.

"It is ok dear, I know you didn't mean to do anything bad."

I got closer of her and wiped her mouth clean again.

"But, you need to fix this, ok? I promise you that I will not allow anyone to give you another bad pill."

Her look went from ashamed to sad in a blink of an eye.

"It is done, they won't see what I want them to see any more"

Then as I was getting more relieved she said:

"She is here, that bitch...aghhh how I hate her, why she didn't wait till I called her?"

I wondered if she was talking about Grotheske or a member of the staff that she didn't like, but she continued:

"She is not sleeping anymore. That bitch does not want to sleep all the time. She is hungry, she said that she is tired of all the fighting and wants to talk with you"

"What are you saying, dear? How can Grotheske be awake and you still be you?"

She sighed...

"Well..., we made a deal, cupcake.", then Vol's voice became pleading," Sweetie, I am also very tired of fighting her all the times. I hate her, but it is time that we learn about it for real. Grotheske wants to be a part of our team."

I could not believe in what she had just said to me.

Then I really collapsed my weight in the nearest armchair putting one of my hands in my forehead.

That day was starting to feel really promising, I thought to myself,...just like a headache.

"A deal?", I asked.

"More like a promise, babe.", that was not Voluptia's voice anymore...