Chapter Two – The Man with Moonlight Eyes

Teaser:

She was trained to chase the truth. But no one warned her what it looks like when it stares back.

---chapter begins

The coffee shop on 9th and Verdan was too quiet for a city this loud. That’s what struck Elira first.

The second was him.

He was seated in the farthest corner, back straight, eyes shadowed beneath the hood of a leather jacket that clung to him like a second skin. Every inch of him screamed don’t look — which is why she couldn’t stop.

The barista cleared her throat. “Your order?”

“Black. No sugar.” Elira’s voice was distant, eyes fixed. “Who is that?”

The barista followed her gaze. “Oh, that guy? He comes in at odd hours. Doesn’t talk much. Doesn’t tip either.”

“Elira,” said a voice at her shoulder — Jai, her tech assistant. “That’s him. Same jawline. Look at the surveillance stills.”

He passed her his phone under the table. The frame captured a blurry man half-turned away from a body, motionless in a warehouse lit by red emergency light. A curved tattoo at his throat glowed faintly — like silver fire.

She looked back up. The man at the corner table hadn’t moved.

Elira's hands tightened around her cup. “That mark… I’ve seen it before. On the Accord’s sealed files. ‘Subjects with the lunar brand are to be avoided. Do not engage.’”

“Yet here we are,” Jai muttered. “On a date with death.”

Her heels clicked against the tile as she crossed the room, each step deliberate. Riven Wolfe — if that was even his name — lifted his gaze as she approached.

And the world went still.

His eyes weren’t human.

They were silver and storm — moons held behind irises — and they narrowed on her like she was an inconvenient truth he couldn’t erase.

“You’ve been following me,” he said, voice low and dry.

“Funny,” Elira replied, taking the seat across from him without invitation. “I was about to say the same thing.”

A silence stretched between them, humming with something unspoken. He didn’t blink. She didn’t flinch.

“Whatever story you think you’re writing,” Riven said finally, “burn it. Some truths don’t belong in ink.”

Elira leaned in, her voice a whisper. “And some secrets shouldn’t breathe.”

His jaw tightened. “You have no idea what you’re walking into.”

“Then enlighten me.”

He rose suddenly — graceful in the way only predators are. The chair didn’t even scrape. He stepped past her, leaned in, and said near her ear, “When the moon rises, I don’t choose who bleeds. Stay out of the dark, Miss Voss.”

She turned to reply, but he was already gone — vanished between one blink and the next.

The only proof he’d been there at all was the faint scent of pine smoke… and the sharp chill crawling down her spine.

Ending Line:

“Sometimes, the monster isn’t hiding — it’s just waiting for the right moon to rise.”

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***