“No,” Vlad said again.
I paced in front of the fireplace. Despite him turning it into an inferno that was barely contained by the gilded grate, I still felt chilled to the bone.
“I have the right to talk to the bastard who kidnapped my friend,” I snapped. “Since we don’t have his phone number, linking to him through my abilities is the only option.”
Vlad settled back into the crimson Louis XV chair, an elbow propped on the armrest, chin balanced on his hand. He looked completely relaxed except for his eyes, which focused on me with unrelenting intensity.
“You link to Szilagyi, and his response will be to torture your friend to a level designated to break you. That’s why he took Martin. He wants you to see what he does to him, but if you’re not looking, then he won’t spare the effort.”
My hair swung with my furious strides. “Marty was already cut up pretty good, so Szilagyi isn’t waiting for anyone!”
“That’s for information” was his pitiless reply, “but Martin can’t relay anything of real import, so his primary effectiveness lies in your affection. Once Szilagyi realizes he can’t use him to force you to betray me, Martin’s usefulness ends, so if you want to keep your friend alive and in the best possible condition, you won’t link to Szilagyi.”
“Why doesn’t he find another psychic?” I muttered. “I’m not the only one: psychics work with police all the time.”
“A regular psychic isn’t enough. You can track people in the present and get accurate glimpses of the future. I’ve only met two other people with that ability. One is dead, and the other is having what you might call technical difficulties with his power.”
My fists clenched, currents pulsing so strongly inside me that I half expected the nearest light socket to short-circuit.
“You wouldn’t abandon one of your people to this fate, so don’t expect me to respond any differently, Vlad.”
“You were at that club less than two hours before those vampires attacked,” he stated. “When you spied upon Szilagyi, he was fully clothed while resting under several blankets. He made sure you saw him in nothing but a nondescript concrete room, and a nondescript concrete room is where he has Martin.”
“What does this have to do with anything?” I demanded.
“It means that he’s not far,” he replied, tone implying it was obvious. “Szilagyi gave the silver-haired vampire orders to kill or retrieve you after they saw surveillance footage of you at the club, so that puts him at less than two hours away. He hasn’t left Romania since or he wouldn’t be so concerned with you seeing details of where he’s hiding, and I doubt it’s a modern or even refurbished house because most of those have heat, yet he used blankets when vampires don’t easily get cold.”
He ticked off the items as he spoke. Put together, they made sense, and I cursed myself for not seeing it, too.
“I have my people scouring all abandoned or seldom used buildings within a two-hundred-mile radius,” Vlad continued. “It’s a large area, but soon we’ll either find Szilagyi or force him to run. Once he surfaces, then you, my beautiful psychic, can link to him and see exactly where he is.”
It was a logical plan that tightened the noose around Szilagyi’s neck, yet left Marty to the whims of fate. Maybe Szilagyi would kill him before he ran. Maybe he wouldn’t. Problem was, I didn’t have a better idea. That didn’t mean I was settling for coin-flipping odds on my friend, however.
“If I come up with a way to stick it to Szilagyi and save Marty, promise me you’ll act on it.”
Vlad’s gaze was hard yet steady. “I don’t want him to die since it would hurt you and he was acting under my orders when he was captured. So if you find a way that doesn’t pose more danger to my people, you have my word that it will be done.”