But this school was practically a maze. If they were trying to avoid the smoke, they might take a different route to the library and miss her altogether.

Before he even had it all reasoned out, the second girl was in his arms, and he was running for the front again.

This time the firemen tried to stop him. He heard shouts and felt a hand grab for the sleeve of his hoodie, but he ducked and bolted back into the smoke, running again for the library entrance.

He made it all the way to the hallway running parallel to the library before he found more bodies. The hall was so choked with smoke that he practically tripped over the first one. Two girls and a guy. He recognized the guy, Randy Sorenson. He played starting center for the football team.

He also outweighed Gabriel by a good fifty pounds.

Gabriel grabbed one of the girls first. She wasn’t breathing at all.

The smoke was so thick that he had to drag her. He made it down two hallways before finding firemen.

Good. He dropped her and ran back, yelling behind him, “Down this way! There are two more!”

When he heard them behind him, he passed Randy and the other girl and dove through the smoke into the library.

Fire swirled around his feet to welcome him. It was happy he was here.

Because it wanted him to help destroy.

The rage caught him by the throat and held on. This fire wanted destruction just like the fires he’d found in the community. The carpet flamed around him, sending plumes of smoke into the air. Every bookcase was fully consumed to the point that he couldn’t identify anything. He couldn’t hear a thing over the roaring flames.

It didn’t stop him from shouting. “Nick! Layne!”

Nothing. But he knew approximately where she would have waited, and he started forward.

Only to trip over another body.

This one was on fire, and he only knew it was a guy because of the shape. Not Nick—too big. Gabriel swept his hands across the clothes, sending the fire off to find other things to burn. Then he hooked his hands under the boy’s arms and started to drag.

This guy was easily as heavy as Randy. Gabriel borrowed strength from his element, but it wasn’t going to be enough.

Suddenly, hands were there, beside his, helping to drag. Gabriel looked up, expecting a fireman.

But finding Hunter.

“The firemen are waiting for hoses,” Hunter yelled. “It’s too hot. They can’t—”

“Is this guy alive?” he shouted.

A pause. “Yes.”

“Then shut the fuck up and pull.”

They got him to the entrance. Gabriel didn’t wait to see whether Hunter would follow him. He had more ground to cover.