Keystone (Crossbreed #1)(39)
“You eat today,” he said.
Viktor sliced a banana into several pieces. “I am not going to sit here and praise your actions. Loyalty is essential, and you have failed to impress me, even if the result was a good one. I can’t award you credit for chance. I am placing you on probation.”
I shook my head. “What does that mean?”
He ate a slice of banana from the blade of the knife. “It means you will not go on any assignments in the near future. We need to measure your skills and make sure you are able to acclimate to the team. This is not a club. Every person I bring in, I watch before they’re ready to move to the next level. You can still help with planning and theories, but jeopardize this case or any of my men’s lives, and you’re out.”
My heart sank. At least I still had another shot, but why couldn’t he be proud of what I’d done, even if it wasn’t by the book?
“Understood,” I said, dodging the stares from everyone at the table.
Viktor brought his knife up to his mouth and ate another slice. “Before we make a move, I need to confirm something.”
“I’m working on it,” Wyatt said, shoveling eggs into his mouth.
Niko lowered his voice. “How do you feel?”
“Better, thanks,” I whispered back.
His eyes skated around me, as if looking at something. “Your light isn’t back to normal.”
How could he see energy that didn’t belong to me? Unless it was an educated guess. I was usually in a cantankerous mood after pulling core light from a criminal.
Blue offered me a basket of bread, and I waved it away. Watching everyone eat was making me nauseous. I still hadn’t gained their respect and didn’t yet belong. Being reprimanded in front of them also didn’t help my mood.
“I need to take a walk.”
Claude reached across the table and gripped my wrist. “Why won’t you eat?”
“You’re making the Chitah nervous,” Gem said, leaning her head on his bicep. “He’s a softy when it comes to looking after us girls.”
I pulled gently out of his grasp. “I can’t eat—not after last night. I’ll just get sick. Sometimes it takes a couple of days before I can keep anything down. Go on without me; I’m not feeling good.”
When I got up to leave, my steps quickened as the distance between us grew. A feeling of suffocation overwhelmed me, making it hard to breathe. The dark light, the newness of my situation, the uncertainty of my future—I needed fresh air. I emerged through the back door, drifting into a blanket of fog that rolled across the estate and into the surrounding woods. It had an ethereal glow, making it seem as if I were lost in a dream. Morning light filtered through a veil of dark clouds, but there was no thunder or smell of rain. The blades of grass below my feet glittered with tiny prisms of dew, and I left tracks of flattened grass behind me as I moved toward a grove of trees.
I wiped some of the moisture off an iron bench before taking a seat. The Keystone estate was another world. No trains, cars, airplanes, voices, or even dogs barking. The only sounds were drops of water dripping off the leaves and into puddles, a woodpecker tapping against a tree in the distance, and the occasional rustling of leaves.
In a burst of movement, Gem flashed by me and jumped onto the rope swing. She stood on the wooden plank and used her arms to swing back and forth. “Mind if I hang out with you?”
“Once my heart starts beating again, sure.”
The rush of air from her movement stirred up some of the leaves below. “You can’t flash? I thought you were half Mage.”
I glanced up at the creaking branch as she swung back and forth. Gem had on a knit duster that was so thin the wind lifted it like a floating shadow. Her black shorts made her legs seem long, and I realized Gem had a style all her own. Tousled violet hair touched her shoulders in pretty waves, making her seem like a fairy who lived in the forest.
“I can’t do everything you can do.”
She leaned back, gripping the ropes and looking up at the tree as sprinkles of water shook from the leaves. “I think that’s why Viktor chooses us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well… I think we all have something in common. We’re different from everyone else in some way. And we also had nowhere left to go—nothing left to live for. Am I right?”
She was definitely right about me, but I wasn’t so sure that applied to everyone else. “Most of those guys don’t look like they’re at the end of their rope. Claude runs a salon, right? And Blue seems to have her stuff together.”
Gem hopped off the swing and approached me with an exaggerated step due to her heavy shoes. She eyed the wet bench and then squatted down on the concrete area before my feet, her arms wrapped around her knees. “Everyone who comes into the house has the same melancholy look in their eyes. But you don’t have to worry; that goes away after a little while. Not all the way, but Viktor fills in a lot of those empty spaces by giving meaning to our lives.”
Gem’s skin glowed with the humidity, so pale and lovely that it made me envious.
“Did your Creator name you?”
A smile brightened her angelic face. “She sure did. I could have kept my first name, but Gem was her idea because of my love for gemstones. See?” She held the quartz crystal necklace between two fingers. It was a beautiful raw cut with several sides and a point on the end.