The winter holidays had begun. With the weather getting worse by the day, the students of B.I.D. were instructed to remain in their rooms and keep warm. The heating furnaces were cranked up as high as they would go, and though the radiators in the dormitories were unreliable at best, they certainly helped keep frostbite at bay.

But it wasn't the cold that worried Karazelle. She had learned from her first year at the school that it was best to sacrifice her personal style for the sake of keeping warm. Her carefully-selected outfits had been sequestered to the back of the wardrobe, replaced instead by fluffy woollen jumpers and thick trousers.

No, she was worried about something else entirely. Namely, the sudden disappearance of Cobalt Trayer. Her mother said that he had returned home for the holidays, but Karazelle didn't buy that. Tapping a few numbers into her phone, she gazed out of her bedroom window and held it to her ear.

"Hello? Trayer household!" spoke the voice on the other end.

"Mrs. Trayer? It's me, Karazelle, remember?" asked the Succubus, drumming her fingers against her arm.

She held the phone away from her ear as Cobalt's mother gave a high-pitched squeal of delight.

"Oh, Viola's little girl, how are you?! It's so good to hear from you!"

"Y- Yeah, yeah it is! Listen, I'm in a bit of a rush here, so can I ask you something?"

"Of course, of course! What's on your mind, sweetheart?"

Swallowing hard, Karazelle peered out through the flurry of snow at the window opposite hers. It was dark.

"Is Cobalt there with you?" she asked, bracing herself for the answer.

She heard Jezebel make a confused humming noise.

"Snookums? Why, no, he hasn't so much as called me! Honestly, that boy...!" she huffed.

Karazelle bit her lip. She had feared as much. For Cobalt to just up and disappear without a word... It wasn't normal.

"I do hope he's taking care of himself. Karazelle, sweetie? Have you had a chance to use that special gift I gave you yet?" asked Jezebel.

"Um..."

Turning around, she glanced over at her dresser, where the glowing pink bottle lay tucked between a makeup bag, a discarded magazine and a half-empty takeaway carton.

"I'm working on that at the moment," she murmured, the edges of her mouth curling downwards at the sight of it.

Truth be told, in all the hectic chaos of the past few weeks, somehow getting Cobalt to ingest the Red Rose Extract had completely slipped Karazelle's mind. Between trying to help the Incubus with his food situation and keeping on top of her assignments, that little bottle of aphrodisiac had completely fallen to the wayside.

It was strange. She hadn't put nearly as much effort into her schoolwork the previous year. What with Mr. Whittaker being a creep and her mother barely paying attention to her, Karazelle felt as though she could just kick back, relax, and let the deadlines pass her by. But somehow, this year, she felt like she had to start catching up. Perhaps it was the fear of a nasty wake-up call next year that could be partly attributed to this sudden sense of academic urgency, but she knew herself what the real reason was.

It was Cobalt. He worked so hard; put so much of himself into his work, that she just felt compelled to reciprocate. It felt wrong not to. And she had to admit that he was doing a good job. Before the Incubus sat her down and explained it to her, Karazelle had no idea how the Hellish justice system worked.

Perhaps it was respect. Perhaps it was something else entirely. But whatever it was, it was urging Karazelle to look into his sudden disappearance.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to go now, Mrs. Trayer, but thanks for letting me know."

She heard Jezebel chuckle.

"Okay then, sweetheart. Thanks for looking after my boy! Take care~!"

Ending the call, the Succubus tossed her phone onto her futon and returned her attention to the window.

"Where are you, sugar...?" she murmured to herself, pulling her coat from a pile of dirty clothes that she had kicked into a corner.

Donning both it and a woolly hat she picked up at a charity shop, Karazelle unlocked her window and jerked it open, as she had done so many times before. The wind was bitterly cold, and there was a fair about of ice and accumulated snow on the support beam.

"Easy does it, girl. Easy..."

Climbing out onto the outside sill, the Succubus straightened herself up and took a deep breath. Even before she met Cobalt, she was dancing across and clambering about the maze of dormitory support beams for kicks, simply because her mother had decreed them off-limits. But never once had she tried to brave them during the icy month of December.

But her mother always said she was too reckless for her own good.

Kicking off the windowsill, Karazelle darted across the frozen support beam, biting her tongue as she quickly put one foot in front of the other. For a split second, she felt her foot slip on a particularly thick patch of ice, but one way or another, she managed to cross the beam without falling to her death. Breathing a sigh of relief, the Succubus jiggled the faulty lock on Cobalt's window and pulled it open, swinging herself in onto his couch in one fluid motion.

The room was freezing cold, to the point where Karazelle could see her breath. Her teacher's futon lay ruffled and unkempt on the floor, whilst all around the room, she could see signs of a hasty exit. His nightclothes lay discarded on the floor; unusual for such a usually-tidy man. As she inspected the garments, she spotted something on the coffee table.

Cobalt's flip-phone; a practically prehistoric device with a dull, scratched case.

Flicking it open, the screen lit up, illuminating both the dark bedroom and Karazelle's relieved face. At least her teacher's poor grasp of modern technology meant she wouldn't have to deal with any pesky cybersecurity.

Still, for such an organised man to leave his phone behind... It was out of character.

"What's been going on, sugar...?" she murmured, flicking through the phone's menus.

His messages bore nothing of interest, save for a veritable wealth of unopened texts from someone called Alison. Deigning to respect at least some of Cobalt's privacy - considering how often she already violated it - she ignored the unread messages and instead turned her attention to his call history.

"What the...?"

On the night he disappeared, at around ten o'clock, Cobalt had received a call from Viola Terna, the very same person who had insisted he was at his family's for the Winter Festival.

"Momma, you lying-!"

She suddenly froze. There, in the darkness, she could see a cloud of steam, one that hadn't originated from her own mouth.

As quickly as her reflexes would allow her, Karazelle dove out of the way, just as a flurry of obsidian-tipped arrows launched forth from the thin air. As they sunk themselves harmlessly into the far wall, she scrambled to her feet and raised her hands.

"Played your hand a bit quick there, Elya," she murmured, nervously eyeing up the arrows.

Black wind swirled around the room as the Fallen stepped into view, her putrid purple eyes narrowing as her invisibility wore off. Despite the cold, she just wore her grubby coat.

"Not another word," she hissed in reply, nocking a barbed arrow as she aimed her Obsidian Bow.

"Come on, let's talk about this. I take it you're looking for him too?"

Her eyes glinted.

"Don't speak as though you had good intentions for my beloved, whore."

"Ouch. How could you. That really stings, calling a Succubus a whore like that," Karazelle droned, mimicking the Fallen's own monotone.

Taking a step forward, she raised an eyebrow.

"Listen, Yalfre, if I really had something to do with Cobalt's disappearance, I sure wouldn't be here, would I? I'd be wherever it is I've kept him, likely riding him raw-"

"SILENCE!" Elya shrieked, tossing her bow aside as she whipped her dagger from her coat.

She made a grab for the Succubus' throat, but she quickly staggered back onto Cobalt's futon, holding his phone protectively in front of herself.

"Here! Take a look yourself! Momma was the last person to call him, and the pair had a big fight last time I saw them together!"

The deranged Fallen halted her blade. Quickly, she snatched the phone out of Karazelle's hand and stared hard at it, before glancing up at the Succubus herself.

"Not the deceiver herself, but the harlot's own progenitor..." Elya said slowly, letting the words drip off her tongue like venom.

"You know, if you're gonna give me a pet name, you could at least call me something cute," Karazelle sighed, getting to her feet and stretching languidly.

Ignoring her statement, the Fallen brought the phone close to her face and took a deep whiff of the number pad, before unceremoniously licking the screen.

"That bitch...!" she hissed, before she turned to the window.

Without even a final vitriolic glance towards Karazelle, Elya slipped out the window and unfurled her stony wings, swooping off into the frozen night. Left alone in Cobalt's room, the Succubus finally allowed her nerves to get the better of her, causing her legs to buckle. As brave a face as she put on in front of the school nurse, she was still terrified of her. Something about her single-minded obsession with the Incubus told her that Elya was willing to die for one-sided love, and was more than capable of killing for it.

But as she got up to leave, she took a moment to stare out the window. Though Elya was - for want of a better word - a complete nutjob, it was that same unholy drive that told Karazelle that the Fallen was likely the best person to track Cobalt down, and that the matter was out of her hands now.

She could only pray she didn't do anything too terrible to her mother.

"Bring him back safe, you damn psycho..."

 

-----

 

A teacher's salary wasn't all that much. In the current economic climate, it was barely enough to support more than a single person, never mind an entire school. Indeed, Cobalt Trayer's "contributions" to B.I.D.'s financial problems were paltry; mere drops of urine on a howling gale.

Indeed, the only reason Viola accepted such terms was to teach him a lesson. Indeed, it was his idea, but she knew for a fact that he would suffer for it, and would hopefully learn to hold his tongue in the future, lest he lose the school any more financiers. But somehow, all that did was spark something within the Incubus, something that Viola had long since considered dead within him. To a see such a sheep of a man grow so angry for just a split second... It was haunting.

And yet too bloody familiar for her liking...

"Perhaps I'm being too harsh," she said aloud, staring out the window of her private study.

No. One could never be too harsh when it came to matters of discipline. He had stepped too far out of line, and required a proverbial caning. Her acceptance of the Sulfur Bloods' deal was mere opportunism on her part, and while she trusted Lorenzo Suyas not to grievously harm the Incubus, Viola knew that the overall experience would likely quash any rebellious feelings within him for the foreseeable future. An acceptable result.

She slumped down into her chair. So why did she feel so miserable about it?

The Succubus knew rightly, of course. It because here she was, some twenty years on, trying to beat the rebelliousness out of an Incubus once again. Bittersweet memories came flooding back of a time long gone. Memories she forced herself to try and forget...

"Enough of this. Sleep shall do me some good," Viola grumbled, stepping away from her desk.

Walking over to the bedroom on the other side of the staff apartment, the Succubus' attention was suddenly piqued by a knock on her front door.

She raised an eyebrow. It was the middle of the night; who would be here at this hour?

"Yes? Who is it?" she called.

"It's Elya Yalfre, miss. I'm afraid there's a situation that requires your immediate attention, and time is not a luxury we can afford," replied the voice of the nurse from outside.

Viola's eyes narrowed.

Elya. A bad egg, through and through.

She was a strange student. Quiet. Reserved. Withdrawn. Happier hiding in the infirmary than out making friends, for reasons best known to herself. That wasn't what was odd about the girl, however. It was whenever she entered third year that things really took a turn. She cut her hair short, started acting erratically, and began brandishing a black iron dagger at anybody who dared come near the one object of her eternal affection.

Cobalt Trayer.

The woman was dangerous. Viola took a risk hiring her, but while the mature nurse act had most people fooled, it didn't work on the headmistress.

"One moment, please," Viola called, stepping into her bedroom.

She pulled a gun case out from her bedside cabinet. Producing the hunting revolver that lay within, she thumbed a sextet of cartridges into the chambers before hiding the weapon behind her back. Though she had only ever shot birds and game with her firearms, she was more than willing to use deadly force to defend herself.

Clicking the hammer into place, Viola walked down the hall and slowly unbolted the door. She gripped the revolver tight, and opened it.

There was no-one there, just an empty hallway.

Before the Succubus could shut the door again, a black-skinned hand suddenly appeared from nowhere, chopping her in the throat and knocking her back into the apartment. She tried to draw her gun, but the force of impact knocked it from her hands, and before Viola knew it, a bare foot swept the pistol away. Leaping forward from the darkness, Elya Yalfre drew her dagger and pointed it threateningly at the headmistress.

It appeared she was fully aware that Viola knew of her true nature, as the madwoman was completely naked, save for a dull white coat that was covered in grime and dried blood.

"Where is he?!" the Fallen hissed, eyes flashing dangerously.

Viola gritted her teeth and shuffled back.

"Off repenting for his transgressions. It's thanks to Cobalt that we were in the red in the first place. Sending him away just rebalanced our finances," Viola choked, wincing as she clutched her throat.

Stepping into the apartment, Elya shut the door with a bat of her wing.

"Do not make me ask again, you harpy."

Viola bared her teeth.

"I can have you fired for this, you know...!"

She just cocked her head.

"And suffer what consequences? Ah. Of course. There's no other medical professional available for this position in the whole of Brimstone. I've made sure of it. And without a nurse, this school will not meet city-state standards, and shall thus be forced to close. Do I have the right of it?"

Viola bit her tongue. Of course, she was absolutely correct. Having at least one medical professional on staff was a legal requirement in Hellish schools, owing to the high risk of injuries in the education sector. She already took a big enough risk starting the year without a nurse; if she publicly fired her current one, she'd be out of a job.

Elya had her by the throat in that regard.

"You don't understand. These people won't harm him, at least not too much. He'll be back before long," Viola muttered.

Dropping to her knees, Elya stabbed the dagger into the floorboards right next to Viola's head. She crawled over the headmistress' body, pressing her unnaturally cold skin against her.

"I want him back now," she spat, directly into the Succubus' ear.

She bared her teeth.

"And I am not above cutting the information out of you,"

Viola gritted her teeth.

No. The contract with the Sulfur Bloods wasn't worth her life.

"... Lorenzo Suyas' estate. Inferno, I believe it's called. He's being kept there," she sighed.

With a pronounced growl of anger, Elya withdrew her blade and got to her feet, exiting the apartment without another word. Lying there on the floor, the headmistress reached up and gently massaged her aching throat, brow furrowing with irritation.

She knew better than anybody that trouble followed a Trayer like a dog followed the stench of meat.

"Lorenzo... I do wonder if you're really able to deal with another one..."