Page 43 of Ellie 3

“I’ll do whatever I can and not just because the sex is so amazing between us when you feed. I know getting better blood to vampires is a priority for you.”

“You’re going to make me fall in love with you,” I warned.

“I hope so,” he chuckled, giving me another kiss.

We headed into work and everyone was just dead from the past several days. We weren’t getting in any more victims, and most would be presumed dead by now, so it was mostly recovery operations from what I knew.

But somehow we still had “guests” all over the lawns of my fucking hospital. Guests who were asking when food was coming again and if they could get showers—basic everything.

I was beyond furious. Not at them. This wasn’t their fault, and they hadn’t asked to be brought to ASH, simply someplace safe.

And probably not forever.

I called the president and wasn’t happy with the answers I received. I made it clear that he handle this fast and without asking me to grab my ankles for these assholes or he wouldnotlike how I handled it.

Unfortunately, I was pretty sure he was going to call my bluff.

“I don’t bluff, you fool,” I grumbled after the call was over.

I had a meeting with several of my top admins and told them where we needed to start. First, it was going to be hellish, but I needed the bill foreverythingwe’d provided. Everything. People needed to see exactly how much the South American government was trying to push off onto a private hospital when it was their responsibility.

I also had our media people start taking footage of the crazy we had and even security footage of the portals being opened to dump uninjured people on us. We hadn’t released that for privacy reasons, and it had been a crisis, but now… No.

Again, we weren’t a fucking hotel or resort for people. We weren’t a UN hospital for them to abuse like this.

Which was why there weren’t many UN hospitals.

At. All.

There was a whole list, but it was clear that I was preparing for war. I knew they were nervous, and it was against what the president wanted… But we didn’t answer to the South American government, and I wasn’t going to risk that the people advising the president were pushing him the wrong way on this.

It would benefit the North American government if we were labeled a UN hospital as well. All of the governments would love that—had been trying to make that work for decades.

No matter that it would fuck me and ASH over. It would be the political win of the century.

Which was why I was never, not ever going to let that happen. ASH wasn’t about politics or even one government. It was bigger than that.

That was how we were able to help as we did.

I made some calls and recorded them so I had the threats and dismissive attitudes along with what I already had. Basically, my arsenal was well-stocked.

I gave the president one more chance, but by four in the afternoon, I was getting the brush-off, not even talking to him directly. Big mistake. That was too big of a mistake on something this important.

So I contacted the news station with the biggest nightly news show and told them I was willing to give an exclusive interview that they would want. Including a whole lot of information that would make their views explode.

Needless to say, when that sort of statement came from me, they believed it… And asked how long until I could be at their studio.

“Good luck,” Ha-joon muttered as he met me by the portal to take me to New York. He gave me a quick kiss and couldn’t hide the worry in his eyes.

“I’ve done much crazier things than calling a world leader on his shit,” I assured him. “Get some rest. I’ll see you at home.”

“I have a meeting with Alan and Sean about what we talked about.” He cupped my face when I flinched. “I’m trying to take something off your plate. You trust us. It’s just hard for you to be party to it when…”

When it was about my blood and talking about me like an asset that more could be gotten from. That was fair, and I was pretty sure he had noted the way it had triggered me about my past. Especially since my father had popped out his head.

And I still needed to have a difficult conversation with my father.

The anchor of the show was hesitant and clearly didn’t think an interview during his prime-time show was a good idea. He changed his mind quickly when I went over some of what I was going to show everyone. It was against their protocols that they didn’t see and verify all the information first.

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