Chapter 1

The late afternoon sun slanted through the high windows of the physics lecture hall, catching the dust motes that drifted above the empty rows. Most of the students had already filed out, leaving only the low hum of the HVAC and the sharp click of heels on linoleum.

Dwayne, an eighteen-year-old freshman who had spent most of the semester half-asleep in the back row, sat slumped at his desk while Professor Peterson stood over him, arms folded under her full breasts. The blouse she wore was a soft cream silk, buttons straining just enough to hint at the heavy curves beneath, and a tailored black jacket framed her hourglass figure. A sophomore Physics professor still early in her career, brunette hair twisted into a practical bun, she carried the kind of body that turned heads in the faculty lounge, thick thighs, a soft belly that only made her hips look wider, and an ass that filled out her pencil skirt like it had been poured into it.

“Dwayne,” she said, voice clipped with practiced authority, “you fell asleep in lecture. Again. We need to talk.”

Dwayne rubbed the back of his neck, staring at the scuffed surface of his desk. “Sorry, Professor Peterson. It won’t happen again.”

Near the doorway, a girl his own age, Emily, paused with her backpack half-zipped. She glanced over her shoulder, dark eyes widening. “Oh shit. Is that Dwayne? Looks like he could use a little help.”

She took one step into the hall.

Then her knees buckled.

Emily crumpled against the doorframe with a soft, surprised gasp. For a second she just lay there, eyelids fluttering. Then something pale and glistening slid out from beneath the hem of her skirt, slick, segmented, the size of a large earthworm but translucent and faintly pulsing with a sickly bioluminescence. It left a thin trail of clear fluid as it writhed across the threshold and into the lecture hall.

Professor Peterson never saw it coming.

The parasite reached her black pump, coiled once around the ankle strap, and began to climb. It disappeared under the hem of her skirt with shocking speed. The professor’s breath hitched. Her eyes went wide. A full-body shudder rolled through her, shoulders jerking, lips parting around a strangled sound that was half gasp, half moan. Her hands clutched the edge of Dwayne’s desk so hard her knuckles whitened. Then, abruptly, …