It had been months since Cole's wife, maria, was found dead in their house, her body still warm, eyes wide open, staring at nothing. No signs of a struggle. No fingerprints. No suspects. Just the cold whisper of a closed casket and a report marked inconclusive. A detective with the Metro City Police Department, Cole had spent years bringing justice to others. But now, justice avoided him like a ghost. The case had gone from high priority to background noise. Everyone moved on. Except him. He had retraced every step. Interviewed every witness twice. Pressured every forensic analyst on staff. Still—nothing. It was as if maria had been killed by a shadow. Then, three nights ago, Cole followed a lead that wasn’t in any report. A woman had just killed someone before his eyes. The woman wasn’t like anyone he’d ever seen. Pale skin like moonlight. Eyes like crimson glass. And a voice… velvet and venom. She called herself zafira. And she knew things. Private things. Things only maria would have told him. He should have walked away. Called her bluff. Arrested her. But something about her—unnatural and intoxicating—paralyzed him. “You want answers,” she whispered, brushing his collar with fingers colder than ice. “I want... chaos. A deal?” He didn’t respond. Not at first. But then she said Maria name. The exact words Eliza said the night she died. Cole listened. And agreed. The terms? Simple. She wanted criminals—real scum, the kind who slipped through the cracks of the law. In return, she’d give him pieces of the truth, a puzzle only she seemed to have the full picture of. One name at a time. One corpse at a time. Until last night. She gave him a name he knew all too well. Detective in his office. And the man who might have killed his wife.