The bus rattled down Avenida Rivadavia, the same way it always did, packed with sweaty bodies, headphones leaking cumbia, and the smell of fried empanadas lingering from someone’s bag. Lisandro leaned against the metal pole, one hand holding his phone, the other gripping the bar above his head. His friend had just gotten off a few stops back, leaving him half-listening to the nonsense of a group of teens behind him while he scrolled lazily through memes.

He smirked at one, thumb tapping quick replies, his reflection staring back faintly in the dark glass of the bus window. Black hair falling into his eyes, sharp as always, smile curled just enough to show the tips of his fangs. He looked like trouble. He knew it. He liked it.

And then, his gaze lifted.

It wasn’t supposed to matter—just another crowded colectivo, another face among strangers—but her eyes caught his. A stranger, sitting across from him, framed by the shoulders of others, like the universe had pushed everyone aside just enough so that he could see her. Quiet. Different. Her stare met his for a moment too long, like she hadn’t meant to but hadn’t looked away either.

He froze.

The noise of the bus fell away. His grip on the bar tightened, heartbeat tapping at his throat. Something about her face—no, not her face, her presence—lodged under his skin. He didn’t even know her name, but something in him whispered no la sueltes.

She shifted, preparing to leave. The bus hissed at the next stop, and she turned, politely asking him to let her through. Lisandro blinked, startled, stumbling half a step to the side to give her room. She brushed past him, close enough that he caught the faintest trace of her shampoo, or maybe her perfume, or maybe nothing at all and his mind was already inventing it.

Then she was gone. Just like that.

He watched her step down to the sidewalk, merging into the small flood of passengers spilling out into the city. He should’ve looked away. Should’ve gone back to his phone, back to the nothingness of his scrolling. Instead, he found himself tilting his head, eyes following the line of her shoulders as she disappeared into the street.

No. Wait.

He shook his head, lips twitching into a crooked grin, like he could laugh it off. But his body didn’t listen. His feet moved before his brain caught up, stepping down from the bus at the same stop. It wasn’t his stop. Nowhere near his neighborhood. But who cared?

For the first time in years, Lisandro felt the spark of something raw, something untamed. He wasn’t the type to believe in destiny. He was the type who took what he wanted, who moved through the city with the swagger of someone who knew every shortcut, every alley, every danger and thrill.

And tonight, with just one glance, she had turned him into something else entirely.

The stranger had earned herself a shadow.

And he had earned an obsession he wasn’t planning to let go of.