A smile ghosted Rory’s lips. “I’m a firefighter. The boys would give me merry hell if I went to the hospital for a burn as minor as this.”

“Partial second-degree burns are hardly minor.” The paramedic’s expression was disapproving. “Sounds like your work mates are a bunch of idiots.”

“Their teasing is simply a way of relieving tension,” Rory said, his tone a little sharp. “You should know that.”

The paramedic grunted and stepped back. “Given you won’t take my advice, you’re free to go.”

Rory released me and rose, somewhat cautiously, to his feet. I stood with him, one hand near his elbow, ready to catch him should he show any sign of toppling. After a minute, his smile flashed, and he pointed with his chin toward the somewhat blackened trunk of an old river gum to the right of the cabin ruins.

Once there, he sat down and released a somewhat shuddering breath. “Well, that was a fucking interesting night.”

I glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear us. “What actually happened?”

“As I said, I was attacked. But I certainly wasn’t in the bathroom at the time.” The fury I’d glimpsed before was fully evident now. “The bastards came equipped with magic.”

“Fuck—what sort?”

“The sort that restrains our access to fire but not our access to the mother.” The smile that touched his lips was cold. Very cold. “They found that out very fast.”

Which explained why he was so drained. Reaching for the mother when he was still in the recovery stage of rebirth had been a very dangerous thing to do. I twined my fingers around his again, needing the comfort of his touch. I could have so very easily lost him, because there would have been no calling him back. Not from the mother.

“Any idea who they were?”

“Well, they were very definitely vampires. Other than that, no.”

I frowned. “De Luca’s get has come after me and Jackson a few times now, but I can’t see why they’d drive all the way out here to attack you. Besides, how would they even know you exist?”

“I was at Highpoint when Parella shot De Luca, remember? Maybe one of his crew mentioned it to them.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Even if that were true, Parella and his people couldn’t possibly have known about the connection between us.”

“Maybe it’s simply a matter of the den wanting to erase anyone connected to you.”

“Maybe,” I said even as doubt gnawed at me. While it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that De Luca’s get had indeed decided to erase anyone I was close to, I doubted they’d have either the funds or the foresight to go to a witch and purchase a restraining spell. Not now that their creator was dead.