Read Damsel Under Stress for Free Online

this weekend?” I asked.
    “Some.” He didn’t meet my eyes and instead turned toward the street. “I’ll get a cab.” That was an area where magical powers really came in handy in this city. He barely waved one hand, and suddenly a taxi practically jumped the curb to get to him.
    He took me to a Village restaurant that was upscale in a classy, unobtrusive way. It was different enough from the kinds of places we’d gone together when we were going out as friends to make this very clearly a special date, but not so fancy that it looked like he was trying too hard. The prices on the menu were almost high enough to make my eyeballs bleed, but the food was described in plain, unpretentious English.
    We spent several minutes discussing the menu and deciding what to order, then after we’d given our orders and the waiter had brought our drinks, an awkward silence descended over the table. We’d never had trouble talking to each other before. What had we talked about before we were officially dating? Oh yeah, work. Well, whatever it took to get the ball rolling.
    “How did things go this weekend? Did you find anything interesting?” I asked.
    He looked so relieved and grateful to have a topic of conversation that it was almost funny. “Interesting, yes, but I’m not sure how valuable it was. I’m now certain that someone I don’t know broke her out magically. I’m not sure yet how they got past our defenses.”
    “You don’t think Idris was involved?”
    He shook his head. “No.”
    “He doesn’t seem to know anything about it.” I told him briefly about my earlier encounter with Idris. “So now in addition to having a rogue wizard with a short attention span to deal with, we also now have his girlfriend, who has more than enough reason to have a vendetta against both of us, and who’s capable of staying focused on one thing for more than five minutes at a stretch. Plus, maybe another player entirely who’s capable of getting past all our security. Fun.”
    He made a rueful face. “You said it. We’re trying to track them down, but I’m also curious to see what they do next. I imagine we’ll know soon enough.”
    “I guess it’s too much to hope that their big plan is running away to Fiji and leaving us alone.”
    He laughed at that. “It would be nice, but I doubt it.”
    I had something incredibly witty and clever to say in response, but before I could say it, there was a scream from the back of the restaurant, followed by a whooping alarm and a burst of cold water as the sprinkler system came on.
    “Fire!” someone yelled, and I somehow doubted they were testing their First Amendment right to yell “fire” in a crowded restaurant.

 
    Three
    A stampede to the exit began immediately, with people knocking over chairs and tables in their haste to escape from the restaurant. Fortunately, our table was against the wall, so we weren’t in the traffic pattern to be trampled. As usual, Owen remained calm in the crisis. “Get your coat,” he reminded me. “It’s cold outside.” Meanwhile, he put on his own coat. I threw my coat over my arm and grabbed my purse, then we plunged into the melee. Owen kept a protective arm around me as we moved through the crowd. The real holdup seemed to be the front door, which was so narrow only two people could get through at a time. It created a bottleneck as people pushed forward in a panic. All the while, the sprinklers drenched us.
    “This isn’t good,” Owen muttered. He waved his right hand and whispered something in a mystical language under his breath, and the glass in the front floor-to-ceiling windows vanished. Another wave of his hand and the tables and chairs in front of those windows relocated to another part of the restaurant. “This way!” Owen called out as he guided me toward one of those open windows, but he was so soft-spoken by nature that his voice didn’t carry over the noise of the crowd, the fire alarm, and the approaching sirens.
    I