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Blaine shook.Hewasn't supposed to be here. Blaine had heard stories ofhim,but they had never met face to face. However, he'd know his voice in any crowd. The fact thathesearched him out...
He gulped.
He was in trouble.
Blaine looked over his shoulder at the tall man standing above him on the stairs. He had blonde hair that was so light that it was almost white. He wore a black jacket zipped up and blue jeans, which Blaine assumed he picked to blend in. He stood tall with his arms behind his back, a clear stance that silently expressed his displeasure with the situation.
There were so many rumors about the man. He moved so quietly and swiftly that he could disappear in the matter of the time it took to blink. Because of how sneaky he was, it made him all the more dangerous. One minute, he could be holding a conversation with you, and the next he had a knife to your neck.
"I knew I’d find you here," the man said. The way he was looking around the stairway area didn't match the tone of his voice, however.
"I thought I should after what I heard happened," Blaine said. He took a deep breath. “Did you need me?”
The man sent him a crooked smile.
"Ah, I'll be the one asking questions,” he bent down into a squat until he was only slightly above Blaine. “I've searched you out for a reason, though. I'm glad to see that you’re taking your job seriously."
"You told me to observe her, and to keep her as close as I could," Blaine murmured.
He stood up straight and turned around, so Mykie was out of his immediate sight. "I'm almost positive that I told you to learn what you could by talking to herwithoutinvading her privacy."
Blaine felt his face flush. He was right; he remembered especially the order not to touch anything of hers. It was the only reason he didn't go through her bags as soon as she fell asleep in his bed.
"I apologize. I thought—"
"I don't believe youwerethinking. If you were, you would have made sure your friend didn't push her away the first morning knowing him. You would have told me that she was frequented the place where she met the silver-haired one. You should have stepped in sooner to prevent it."
"I didn't know her yet," Blaine protested. "It was the first night, and I thought Renly would have kept her here longer—"
"Relying on Renly Harper was your first mistake of many," he spat, his volume low but the power almost deafening. "Basing your entire plan around him was the worst thing you could have done."
"He did what I needed him to," Blaine argued. "I led him to Pearl's, where you said she worked, and I told him that she looked interested in him. The rest was up to him. I wasn't expecting her get attached to him or to fall forallof them."
"You should be glad she did, or she wouldn't have stuck around for long," the man muttered. "I was almost positive she would have told them after what I heard happened at La Noir."
Blaine didn't know what to say. If he knew so much about her, why was he given the task to watch her?
He asked that exact thought, and it earned him a bone-chilling laugh from the man behind him.
"That's easy. I wasn't expecting to start this game with her so soon, and I needed someone to watch her when I couldn’t. I wasn't expecting her to fall for Renly Harper so fast, or to meet her before I could. It worked out perfectly how tonight went. She has no one beyond her boys to comfort her, which means you can get closer to her. The entire Cantils social structure would have collapsed after that, if I hadn't been spending months whispering in people's ear, convincing them that Mykie was better suited than Adam Young or even Chance Lauder. Everything’s falling into place now that she's the little Cantil princess."
Blaine had to swallow back a gasp. She was even more important than he was led to believe. However, Blaine was more confused than before. He maneuvered her into the position to take Lauder's spot if something unfortunate happened to him. The Vultures entire goal at the moment was the knock Lauder down a few pegs...
"Why would you want her in a position to challenge you?"
The Vulture King grinned manically. "It would be absolutely boring without a challenge. I've had to admit that we're both necessary; the Cantil's and the Vultures are both needed for the economy to be stable or otherwise, the entire city would be controlled by one or the other. Mykie has always been my competitor, but she didn't know it or hasn't had to means to go against me."
"You'll let her live?" Blaine questioned. He never thought the blonde would live after the end of his mission. It was partly why he vowed to himself to never get to close to her. He had been watching her longer than Renly had known she or Pearl’s existed. He couldn’t let his emotions get the better of him if he was later tasked to kill her.
"Of course," he murmured. "I know she's smart. She knows a challenge when she sees one, and her focus won’t waiver, no matter how many Snakes and Birds she might open her heart to."
The Vulture King looked back at Mykie one last time. "You are one of two Birds I'll allow near her. That is your only mission as of right now. You know how important she is now, so you must protect her heart in the future. I'dhateto have to talk to one of your roommates about proper protocol with a woman like her."
Blaine nodded stiffly. He'd accept the mission and do his best to make sure nothing happened to the woman. He wasn't sure how he'd be able to protect her heart, but he knew it would be worse to fail the mission than to not try to accomplish it.
"Do you have any questions?" The Vulture King asked.
"You said that Renly met her before you. Does that mean that she knows you, and you'll be around more often? More...in the public?"
A small, almost secretive smile graced his lips. "I'm glad you're so cooperative, Blaine, or I would have to contemplate letting you live. Your attention to detail could have put me at risk quite a few times already. I hope to be around her as much as I can be in the future, which is why you cannot allow it to slip how you know me."
Blaine cleared his throat. "Can I ask your name?"
The Vulture King held out his hand. “I think it is best for both our interests that you don’t learn my name before I have to introduce myself to you. That way, there will be noaccidentalslips out of your mouth. I’mverypleased to meet you in the flesh, however.”
Blaine grasped his hand and shook it.
"I hope you'll continue to be useful to me, Blaine. Mykie would bedisappointedto lose you to a bad accident. She's already lost enough people."
