The Sibyl (8 page)

“No, Ms. McRayne.” Cyrus took my arm and
helped me to my feet. “Don’t let Delphine take you so easily.”

“They,” I took a shaky breath as Elliot
wrapped his arm around my waist. “Not ‘they’. It was a woman. Not
the scryer, though. Someone different.”

“You asked before why you needed my
assistance.” Cyrus took his phone out of his pocket. “This is a
perfect example. You are weak and unknowledgeable.”

“Right.” I drew a breath. “If I play along
with this, does that mean you will be by my side indefinitely?”

“Yes.” Cyrus smirked. “You won’t even know
I’m here. I’ll be like a ghost to you. I’ve had centuries to
perfect my line of work, after all.”

“I doubt it.” I barely managed to withhold
the temptation to stomp my foot again. “So I’ll never be alone? Or
have any privacy?”

“You will. I will fade into the background
and act as your shadow.”

“Alright.” I raised my hands in defeat. “You
can help me, but only for as long as I deem necessary. Then you’re
out of here. Understood?”

Cyrus didn’t answer. He tucked his phone back
into his pocket and bowed his head in our direction before
speaking.

“I will be just outside your door for the
time being. I’m certain the two of you have much to discuss.”

Cyrus slipped out of the bathroom before
Elliot stormed out into my suite. I followed him only when I heard
him pick up the phone by my bed. His voice was surprisingly normal
given what had just happened to me.

“Front desk? Great. Can you send security up
to Room 4632? There is a man outside my friend’s door who is
refusing to leave.”

“Elliot,” I hissed between my teeth. “What
are you doing?”

“Yes. He’s bulky, wearing a cheap suit. Black
hair. Bad scar on the right side of his face. You can’t miss
him.”

Elliot hung up the phone and smiled. “No
worries, Eva. Security will have him out of here in no time.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Did you
really just report Cyrus to security?”

“Yeah.” Elliot stuffed his hands in his
pockets and shrugged. “I think you were right. He seems a little
too crazy for me.”

“This coming from the man who – not twelve
hours ago – was touting up the best lightening and camera lenses to
catch ghosts on film?”

“This is serious, Eva.” Elliot closed the
distance between us and took hold of my hands. “You didn’t see how
quick he jumped on you in the bathroom. That guy is trying to get
something from you.”

“What?” I frowned, remembering the look on my
friend’s face when Cyrus had fallen on me. “What could I possibly
have that a man like that would want?”

“A lot of things.” Eli’s blue eyes narrowed
as he studied my face. “Men like that are dangerous, Eva. They prey
on young women.”

“Eli,” I spoke my words carefully. “You have
nothing to worry about. Cyrus doesn’t seem dangerous to me. I don’t
think he is going to hurt me. But what I am starting to believe is
that he was telling the truth.”

“Oh, come on.” Elliot moved across the room
and picked something up off my dresser. When he returned to me, he
handed me my conference identification badge. “Have you looked at
this?”

“Yeah. It has my name on it. So?”

“So it also says ‘Theia Productions’.” Elliot
placed his hands on each one of my arms. “I think this Cyrus guy
noticed that when you were out cold earlier. Even if he’s not after
you for your looks, he could be trying to use you to get into the
entertainment industry.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this.” I looked
up, forcing Elliot to make eye contact with me. “I trust him, Eli.
I am convinced he wants to help me.”

“You don’t know how this works, Eva. I do.”
Elliot shook his head. “You can’t trust people like Cyrus.”

“I think I can.” I shifted out of Elliot’s
grip. “He hasn’t said anything about the show and neither have we.
To be fair, the print on this badge is pretty small. It’s possible
he didn’t even read it.”

“Why?” Elliot stuffed his hands in his pants
pockets. “After all the sarcasm and jokes about this line of work,
why are you so willing to believe him?”

“Because I’ve seen the ghosts in the
mirrors,” I paused at the sound of knocking at my door. “Listen,
we’ll talk about this later.”

Elliot nodded as he moved across the room to
open the door. “Yes?”

“Good evening, sir. Ms. McRayne, please.”

I came up behind Elliot who stepped aside
just enough for the security guard to see me. “I’m Eva
McRayne.”

“Ms. McRayne, I wanted to inform you we found
no one out of the ordinary outside of your rooms.”

“No one?” Elliot frowned. “But this guy swore
he was going to stay outside of my friend’s room. Have you checked
the entire floor?”

“I’ve checked everywhere, sir.” The stocky
guard raised his hand to silence Elliot’s protests. “There are only
conference guests and employees on this floor.”

“Thank you.” I placed my hand on Elliot’s
chest as he started to step forward, pushing him back into the
room. “We appreciate your help.”

The guard mumbled as he disappeared down the
hallway. I started to close the door when I heard a soft laughter
off to my right.

Cyrus was leaning against the doorjamb,
smirking in my direction. “I don’t believe your companion cares for
me very much.”

“It’s not you per say,” I glanced over to see
Elliot falling into the chair I’d vacated earlier. “He’s very
protective.”

“Which is good.” Cyrus nodded. “You will need
all the help you can get, Ms. McRayne. If you listen to nothing
else I tell you, please remember this. Do not get too close to
anyone. Especially your beloved. It never ends well when they have
to leave you.”

“Why?” I felt stupid asking such a simple
question, but I needed answers. And this was the only person who
seemed interested in giving them to me. “Why me?”

“Fate? Destiny? You were in the wrong place
at the wrong time?” Cyrus shrugged. “There is no rhyme or reason to
how the Fates work. It is best to just follow their plan without
question. Otherwise, nothing but suffering will follow you for the
rest of your days.”

“Eva, who are you talking to?”

I was staring at the door frame when the
sound of Elliot’s voice broke through my thoughts. I whipped around
to refute Cyrus, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Rise and shine, doll!”

I woke up confused until I realized where I
was. We were still in New York. I was still sleeping in a strange
bed. The drinks I’d shared with Elliot the night before to forget
about Kathy Carter and Cyrus had done nothing to stop the whispers
in my dreams. So I was surprised to see Elliot bounding into my
room with a stack of thick folders in his hands as my alarm clock
was starting to go off.

“No, it’s too early.” I smacked at the alarm
then buried my face into my pillows. “Go away.”

“It’s just past seven.” Elliot sat on the
bed, swinging his legs up with the folders in his lap. “We have
work to do.”

“Eli, you can’t just burst into my room
anytime you want to.” I grumbled loud enough for him to hear me
despite the pillows. “I could be naked.”

“You don’t have anything I haven’t seen
before.” He was flipping through the folders until he stopped as if
he was deep in thought. “Or do you?”

Elliot chose that exact moment to pounce on
me, tickling my sides until I was gasping for air.

“Ok! Ok, I’m awake!”

When he stopped, I opened my eyes to see his
face was inches away from my own. I was still trying to catch my
breath as Elliot brushed his nose against mine. He paused only for
a moment before he kissed me.

I can’t explain what it was like to kiss my
best friend. What I can say is how I was surprised by my own
reaction. I found myself wrapping my arms around his neck, forcing
him farther down to deepen our embrace as a fire flashed through my
veins. Elliot pressed himself harder against me until one of us
groaned.

I was so focused on what we were doing that I
failed to hear the knock on my door until a voice carried through
from the other side.

“Ms. McRayne, are you alright?”

I’m not sure which one of us pulled away
first, but when Cyrus threatened to break down the door if I didn’t
respond, our impromptu make out session slowed.

“Gotta. Answer. Cyrus.” I murmured between
kisses.

“Ignore him. He’ll go away.” Elliot switched
his focus away from my mouth to tracing the outline of my jaw.

“Ms. McRayne.”

“I’m fine!” I managed to call out as I
intertwined my fingers into Elliot’s thick hair to get his
attention. “Just getting awake.”

Cyrus’ only response was silence. I shifted
beneath Elliot to whisper in his ear. “I guess we really should get
going.”

“We don’t have to go today. Let’s take the
day off. Be tourists for awhile.”

I laughed loud enough to break the spell we
were under. Elliot propped himself up on his elbows and grinned at
me.

“So what do you say? Want to skip the
conference today?”

“By god, do you even have to ask? Yes. I
thought Connor wanted us to go to everything we could.”

I wanted to ask him so many questions like
what our actions this morning meant or how would this affect us in
the future. But I didn’t want to ruin the moment. Instead, I turned
onto my side and grabbed the first folder he had abandoned in his
quest to tickle me breathless.

“What’s all this?” I thumbed through the
pages. There were pictures. Statements. I stopped when I came
across what appeared to be a police report and whistled. “This is a
lot of work, Eli.”

“I know. David and the guys in Research have
been scouting for locations for us to film the first season. Since
you asked to have a choice in where we go, I had them fax
everything they had here for us to go through today.”

I nodded. “And these are our choices?”

“Yeah.”

Elliot got off the bed and went to the door
to speak with Cyrus as I sat up. When he returned, we began
shifting through the papers together, oblivious of the conference
going on below us. I was sure Elliot planned this on purpose so I
wouldn’t have to go downstairs after the events from the day
before. He had room service deliver us breakfast. He talked nonstop
about the abandoned places in the files spread out before us. When
I glanced at the clock and realized I hadn’t gotten out of bed
after being up for over three hours, I threw up my hands in
surrender.

“Enough already.” I interrupted him as he was
chatting about the souls of mental patients. “I have to take a
shower.”

“There’s no rush.” Elliot tucked the papers
he had in his hand back into the folder. “I was serious when I said
we should be tourists for the day since you’ve never been to New
York before.”

“And I was serious when I asked if we should
skip it. We can still make a majority of the sessions if we
hurry.”

“I called Connor this morning and told him
what happened. Fortunately, he agreed with me when I said it was a
bad idea for you to go.” Elliot handed me another folder. “In fact,
he gave me two choices. We can either return home for a few days or
leave straight from here to head out to our first location.”

“So we’re not going back downstairs at
all?”

I was skeptical. After all, Elliot loved to
be surrounded by all the nut jobs who thought like he did. But my
friend was serious.

I didn’t know if I should call him just a
friend after our kiss this morning.

“Not to the conference if that’s what you
mean.” Elliot tossed the folder aside. “What would you like to do
today?”

“I’ll decide after my shower.”

I was ecstatic over the opportunity to have
my first free day with Elliot since this whole mess started. I
didn’t give him a chance to respond. Instead, I rushed into the
bathroom and shut the door behind me. I stopped only once, making
sure I closed my eyes as I passed the large mirror. It was still
covered up by the huge comforter, so there was no way I could have
seen anything. But I wasn’t going to risk anything ruining the day
which had started so well.

***

I know I was in the shower longer than I
needed to be, but without the worries of being late to one
appointment or another, I used the time spent under the water to
relax. Or at least, I tried to. Cyrus’ words from last night kept
creeping back into my thoughts like a bad dream that just wouldn’t
fade away. If what he said was true, I was immortal. I had been
given a gift by the gods. I had powers no woman should possess.
Granted, those powers were to talk to the dead, but still. I had
access to an ability which couldn’t be ignored very easily.

As I replayed the conversation from the night
before, questions filtered through that I hadn’t considered before.
Would I never see my own reflection again? Would I really outlive
everyone I’d ever known, and would come to know? I laughed out loud
at the thought of it. Impossible. Elliot was right about one thing.
Cyrus knew how to pull me in. He was starting to make me believe
things I would have dismissed as fantasy yesterday.

No, that’s not right. I wanted to dismiss his
words as fantasy, yet it was harder than I realized. I’d seen three
images I didn’t have the ability to explain with science. I was
still hearing the whispers and having the strange dreams. I
couldn’t explain these either. The only fact I could cling to right
now was that the whole situation was spiraling out of control
faster than I could get a handle on it.

I tried to go back to my original defense of
hitting my head or being overwhelmed by all the changes which had
occurred in my life over the past few weeks. I tried to talk myself
out of believing what I saw in the mirrors yesterday were real. I
even tried to convince myself that insanity was contagious. After
being surrounded by the nuts dressed as aliens and zombies all day,
Kathy Carter had pushed me over the edge.