3. Theodore
3
THEODORE
Two weeks later
M y phone vibrates, and I pick up without checking the caller I.D .
“ How’s Mother ?” I ask.
A deep voice echoes through the speaker. “ At the Inn , fast asleep,” Julian replies.
“ The drugs worked then,” I confirm. We mixed a hefty dose of Benzos into her wine at dinner tonight.
“ She’ll be out ‘til morning.”
Normally , our adoptive mother stays on the estate for these parties, but with what we have planned, we need to keep her out of the way.
“ Is everything set at the house?” Julian adds.
Unlike the Halloween party, tonight is game night—an exclusive, invite-only gathering with one purpose: to play a game. But this isn’t a casual evening of good food, drinks, and laughter between friends. No , it’s dark, twisted, and deadly. A night fueled by hate, destruction, and the thirst for blood.
Latibulum Noctis .
Before being thrust into the darkness of our world, we were groomed for it, but nothing could have prepared us for what truly laid ahead.
I didn’t know what it meant until my eighteenth birthday. That night, my father led me into the cold, stone room beneath the estate. I had thought it would be a test of loyalty, maybe some symbolic gesture to welcome me into adulthood.
I was wrong.
A woman was already there when we entered, blindfolded and trembling. Her hands were tied, her breathing erratic. I remember how her dark hair spilled over her shoulders, the thin line of blood trickling from her lip where she must’ve bitten down. She wasn’t screaming, just quietly pleading under her breath, as if she thought someone might listen.
“ What is this?” I asked, my voice shaking as I stepped back. “ Why is she here?”
Father didn’t answer right away. Instead , he handed me a blade. It was long and ceremonial, its hilt engraved with the symbols of Vanguard .
“ This is your passage into adulthood.”
I stared at him, horrified. “ You want me to?—”
“ It’s for the family,” he said, firmer this time. “ This is how you prove yourself. This is how you earn your place.”
I looked at the woman again, my chest tightening. She was crying, her shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. I kept waiting for him to tell me it was a test, that none of it was real, but he didn’t. He just stood there, watching, waiting, his presence a suffocating shadow pressing down on me.
“ Why ?” I asked, my voice breaking. “ Why do I have to do this?”
“ Because it is the way of Vanguard ,” he said simply, his tone so indifferent, it made my stomach churn. “ You’re a Whitmore . You carry this legacy, and this is how we survive. This is how you survive.”
I don’t know how long I stood there, the knife trembling in my hand. Long enough for her to start whispering prayers I didn’t understand, long enough for my father to grow impatient. Finally , he leaned in close, his voice a sharp whisper in my ear.
“ Do it,” he hissed. “ Or you’re nothing. No one. You don’t walk away from this family. You don’t walk away from me .”
I did it.
I still see her face in my dreams sometimes—the wide, panicked expression behind the blindfold as I stepped closer, the way her body jerked as the blade found its mark. I still hear her final breath, the sickening silence that followed. It wasn’t quick, and it wasn’t clean. It was messy, brutal, and wrong.
That night, I became part of Vanguard . I became my father’s pawn. But I’ve never killed another woman, not after her.
The memory fades, and I’m back in the present, my phone pressed to my ear.
“ Theo ?” Julian says.
“ Everything is set at the house,” I tell him, answering his earlier question. “ The guests have started arriving. Maxwell is already working the room.”
While the staff were busy readying the mansion, I slipped away to the guest house for final preparations to welcome our visitor.
“ And Isabel ?” my brother asks.
“ She’ll be here soon.”
We knew we couldn’t let this opportunity slip by. She would be ours, a siren caught and caged. The thought of having her for myself sends a pulse of anticipation through me, quickening my breath. My fingers tingle at the idea of what’s to come.
Tonight , there will be a sacrifice, and ours will be Isabel .
The irony isn’t lost on me. Perhaps we’re not so different from our adoptive father after all.
There’s a pause on the line before Julian speaks again. “ And the plan?”
“ Intact ,” I confirm. “ By the time she realizes what’s really happening, it’ll be too late.”
I’ve been watching Isabel closely for a couple weeks now, since the Halloween party, and there’s one thing I’m sure of: her friend Valeria is looking for something. I’m not sure exactly what, but I’ve seen the way she searches with intent.
She took the bait on Halloween night, when I carelessly left the basement door open. She went downstairs and no doubt saw the monitors. That’s why I’m sure she’ll be back tonight, Isabel following in her footsteps. The temptation to get answers will be too great to resist.
“ Good ,” Julian says. “ We don’t get another chance at this, Theo . You know that, right? If it goes wrong?—”
“ It won’t,” I cut him off sharply, leaving no room for doubt. “ I’ve thought of everything. I’ve been watching Isabel and her friend. They’re predictable. Trust me.”
Julian exhales. “ You say that, yet I can’t help but wonder if this is more about her than the plan.”
His words strike a nerve, but I don’t let it show. “ This is about Father . It always has been. She’s just… collateral.”
Another pause stretches between us. Finally , Julian speaks. “ Just make sure you remember that. Don’t think with your dick, Theo .”
I clench my jaw, my grip tightening around the phone. “ I don’t need the reminder.”
After we hang up, I take a moment to collect myself.
Tonight , everything changes.