The sharp, echoing crack jolted him back to reality. Someone had slammed their hand on the coffee table, hard enough to rattle the glass centerpiece.
Annabelle's voice cut through his haze, all sarcasm. "Yah! What the hell is wrong with you? Spaced out or something? Not used to that hot body yet?"
Parker barely registered it. His vision was still spinning.
Parker's chest was heaving, blood pounding loud in his ears as the cold, crawling dread in his stomach twisted into full-blown panic. His eyes darted between them—the whole damn family—Julian, Annabelle, Robert, Vivian… and Helena. The Blackwoods.
Or whoever the hell they were.
His voice cracked, raw and furious. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU PEOPLE?!"
[DING! HOST RUN!]
"Master... Run!" Ere and the system whispered in his mind at once!
The words echoed, loud enough to shake the air, but they just stared. Unflinching. Silent. Knowing.
He couldn't take it.