Chapter 1

The moment the instructor shouted "Dismissed," Marty Scott bolted from the formation as if sprinting the hundred-meter dash.

His whole body looked like it was overheating—face flushed, breath rushed, movements frantic.

Watching his hurried retreating figure, I remembered what my godmother had told me that morning before I left the house.

"Olivia, Marty hasn't been acting normal lately. He looks exhausted and out of sorts. Help me keep an eye on him at school, okay?"

After reporting to the instructor, I chased after Marty.

At first, I thought he was just running to the restroom—but instead, he turned straight into the small wooded area on campus.

As everyone knows, the "little woods" at the university is never exactly an innocent place.

No wonder Godmother said he'd been acting strange lately. Turns out, he'd been secretly dating someone.

By the time I reached the woods, Marty was already gone.

Since when could he run that fast? If I'd known he had this kind of speed, I would've petitioned to have him sent to the Olympics to win glory for our country.

At first, I could still follow the footprints on the ground and tell which way he'd gone.

But the deeper I went, the lighter the footprints became—until they vanished completely.

What connected to the last of his footprints was a neat, smooth sliding mark.

It looked like… a snake's tail.

Yes. A snake's tail.

Holy crap.

Such a thick snake tail.

Staring at the trail on the ground—about as thick as my own thigh—I thought of how Marty's footprints had abruptly disappeared.

I clapped a hand over my mouth, eyes wide.

Had Marty been eaten by a python?!

If a python ate him… it probably wouldn't eat me, right?

Just as I was about to cry from panic, I heard urgent, restrained panting coming from the bushes a few meters away.

From the sound of it, whoever it was was in serious distress.

This voice… why did it sound so familiar?

I moved closer toward the source and could almost confirm the voice belonged to Marty.

But the sound was kind of…

My face flushed instantly.

Was Marty crazy? He had no shame, but did he expect a girl to have no shame too?

Huh? Wait.

Something was not right.

I listened again.

It sounded like… there wasn't any girl's voice at all.

Damn it! If I kept listening, I'd be overheating too.

I was about to leave when Marty's impatient, slightly tearful voice came from the bushes.

"Mom… I think I've awakened as an incubus. I'm so hungry right now, and I can't pull my tail back. What am I supposed to do…?"

Those few short sentences made my brain blue-screen on the spot.

Incubus? The kind of incubus I was thinking of?

Unable to suppress my curiosity, I walked straight toward the bushes.

I just didn't expect that… by doing so, I'd end up discovering Marty's earth-shattering secret.

…

Inside the bushes, a thick, black snake tail was coiled beneath Marty's body.

His eyes were red as he anxiously, desperately gripped his camouflage uniform, trying to cover the place where the snake tail connected to his human body.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hide it—the black scales at his waist shimmered faintly, and the tail was fully exposed.

I pushed the branches aside, and Marty followed the sound of movement and looked over.

Our eyes met.

Those pitch-black eyes immediately turned evasive and flustered. His lashes trembled, and the rims of his eyes—which had only been faintly red a moment ago—were now brimming with tears.

"Don't… don't come closer. Olivia, stop looking at me."

He raised his hand to stop me, his stammering voice seemingly forcing down some strange, turbulent emotion.

I wasn't the kind of person who liked to take advantage of someone in a vulnerable state.