Woman Beware by Tianna Xander

Chapter One
     
     
    Lena ran down the side of the road, alone. The only sound she heard came from her feet hitting the pavement of the bike lane. She breathed in the cool night air as the slight breeze bore down on her from one of the rivers that fed Lake Michigan. She could smell the water and the slight odor of fish as she drew closer to the footbridge she would soon cross.
    After a two-mile run on the other side, she would turn around and head home. By the time she reached her small cottage, she would have finished her ten-mile run for the day. Then, she could relax.
    Reaching up, Lena rested her index and middle finger against the side of her neck and checked her watch. Yep. Her heart rate was right where it should be.
    She could see the bridge looming up in the light of the full moon and wondered how many times she’d crossed it. Was it seven hundred, maybe eight? Lena lost count. After her last live-in lover moved out, she ran almost day and night. She needed to get rid of her frustrated energy somehow and running seemed just the way to do it. It didn’t hurt that it kept her in the best shape of her life.
    Maybe she should have kicked Jason to the curb a long time ago. She knew he was using her, but it just seemed easier to stay in the relationship than deal with the problems it caused.
    Her neighbor kept telling her to start dating again, but she refused. The last thing she needed at the moment was another man. As much as she loved men in general, Lena wasn’t sure she was ready to take the plunge, yet again. Men were too fickle.
    Smiling, she thought about one of her friends from college. Maria loved men to the point that she wasn’t happy if she wasn’t dating at least two at a time. Ultimately, Maria ended up living with two men. Maria seemed happy enough. Yet, while a ménage relationship sounded intriguing to Lena, she wasn’t interested. Pleasing one man was difficult enough. Why in the world would she want two? It seemed like way too much work to her.
    Reaching the bridge, she ran lightly up the ramp and out onto the arc that stretched across the river. Lena checked her watch again. By her calculations, she should be home in less than an hour, and she’d finish with her shower just in time to watch her favorite TV show. After that, she would go to bed and soon start a new day all over again. She wasn’t even finished with this one, and already, she looked forward to her next run.
    Just as she reached the halfway point of the bridge, the ground shook violently and the sky became dark. If she didn’t know better, Lena would have thought that perhaps there was some truth to some of the movies she’d watched with Maria about extraterrestrials.
    Bright light and a swirl of brilliant color surrounded her right before the bridge pixilated and broke apart. With a silent scream, Lena fell into the ensuing darkness.
    “What’s happening to me?” Finally, she could hear her own screams.
    “You are getting your wish, young one.”
    “Young one?” Lena could have laughed if she wasn’t scared silly. “I’m nearly thirty-five.” She glanced around, seeing only darkness.
    “That is young to someone like me.”
    The darkness abated and Lena could see. What she saw nearly made her drool, but the man was way too young for her.
    “Right,” she said with a snort. “You can’t be a day over twenty-five.”
    “I am many days over that age, madam.” He smiled at her, revealing a little dimple in his right cheek that was so appealing, it was all she could do to not touch it.
    Lena frowned at the thought. What was coming over her? She never had thoughts like those. She peered out into the darkness surrounding them before returning her gaze to the man before her.
    “I am Garrick the Gatekeeper. I have been what you would call a fairy godfather for close to three thousand years.” He bowed slightly. “I am also called Garrick the Good.”
    Lena glanced around her, looking for an avenue of escape, but she