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Ellie

I was stunned beyond belief at how well revealing I was the founder had gone. The negative attitude too many had towards me at ASH did a complete one-eighty, several apologizing to my face even. I had meetings with HR that employees had set up to get things on the record and clear the air.

Mostly women.

And it was genuine .

A dozen female doctors admitted they had listened to bullshit that I was sleeping with the founder and his plaything which was why I had the power I did. They thought I made female professionals look bad and were resentful of me especially when I preached to everyone else to be better.

They now realized they were the fools who fell into sexist traps listening to the bullshit of others and being too harsh on a woman instead of using their heads.

They wanted the write-up in their files and an action plan on how to do better going forward because they wanted to be part of the future I saw for ASH.

Yeah, I hadn’t seen that coming either.

And apparently, it was spreading. Beth told me there were another two dozen nurses, practitioners, and physician’s assistants who wanted to schedule the same.

I really should have done this all years ago. Seriously.

Probably not. It was the series of dominoes that fell that made everything play out the way it did. I understood that and accepted it, but the wear and tear on me mentally, physically, and emotionally was beyond calculation.

Or reason.

Still, with things going so much better already and over a hundred and twenty of the people who had been a part of the last mutiny working hard to leave gracefully, life was better.

My work-life balance was better. I was leaving work at six-thirty again.

Something normal to have dinner at a reasonable time instead of at my desk and simply collapsing into bed.

And there would be a sexy man there.

My life really is so much better than last year.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I’d been distracted and stupid.

I knew better than to ever fully drop my guard, especially in the parking garage where there were so many blind spots from the cameras.

We had a lot, but we couldn’t cover everywhere and not have a million people to watch all of the monitors.

It just wasn’t realistic.

The gun cocking snapped me out of my happy thoughts and made me realize I was completely vulnerable and had no clue where the threat even was. I threw up a shield on instinct and made it just in time as the gun fired.

I knew without even checking that I was fine, but nothing was in front of me. Spinning around, I used my magic to freeze anyone around me.

My eyes went wide at who I found, but then I sneered as my fangs came out. “I’m only shocked you’d actually get your hands dirty, not that you’d shoot someone in the back, you pathetic piece of shit.”

Joel Warren, the former head of the board, stood there frozen with a gun pointed at me. His eyes were too wide and full of fear and hate. “What are you? How are you doing this?”

He mumbled it because of my magic, but he was able to speak. The magic wasn’t perfect and he couldn’t move much. Twitching basically, but it was focused mostly on his limbs.

And I wasn’t very good since I couldn’t practice much and hadn’t even known what I was… Which was why I snagged the gun from him.

Then I decked him with all I had just because he deserved it, but it took my magic off of him since I needed to focus to hold it. Whoops.

I smirked down at him. “What are you talking about? Vampires can’t do magic.” I chuckled as I squatted down by him. “I saw you in the reflection and dodged, turning around and disarming you, Joel. You picked this blind spot from the cameras to kill me after all.”

“Not kill you,” he hissed, but froze when I pointed the gun at him. “I want the formula for the additive. I deserve it after all—”

“ You deserve it? ” I mocked. “You? The moron who didn’t figure out what was right in front of him all this time? How…” I swallowed loudly when I realized we weren’t alone. I was in seriously deep shit and I didn’t care about the threat from Joel. “I can explain.”

“I’m going to love hearing it,” Ha-joon muttered, blinking between us. “I didn’t think you could shock me any more, Ellie, but I just saw something not possible.”

“Yeah, it’s complicated,” I sighed, focused on him and hoping this didn’t ruin what we had.

And that was the moment Joel decided to attack. When I was distracted like an idiot.

He lunged for the gun, knocking me to the ground. I kept possession of it and got a good elbow to his face before he was ripped away from me by a very, very pissed-off Alpha wolf.

“You dare to touch my fucking mate?” Ha-joon roared in his face, looking more animal than man he was so wild.

“Mate?” Joel gasped. “I heard you were only fucking. We brought you in, you ungrateful fleabag, and you forget that and who you should answer to for some—” He groaned when Ha-joon slammed his head into a concrete pillar.

“I bet that felt good,” I chuckled darkly.

“You have no idea and how difficult it was to hold back,” Ha-joon muttered. “I want to know how he knows you have the blood additive formula. He knows about Tuesday. How?”

I hadn’t put that together yet.

“Fuck you, dog,” Joel snarled.

“Wrong answer,” Ha-joon chuckled darkly, shifting his hand into a claw and digging it into Joel’s side.

He smiled when the vampire wailed in pain.

“You are mistaken if you think I won’t get my hands dirty or will be nice because I’m young or a doctor.

You are a threat to my mate and it’s taking all I have not to kill you. So talk.”

“I can make him,” I blurted. “Not long. Hold him still.” I waited until he nodded and forced Joel to be still. I grabbed the man’s head and made him look at me, catching his gaze and using my magic. “How did you know?”

“Bribed a warlock,” he slurred. “A few of us did when we learned what was happening. We wanted access to the owner after what you did. He faked the magic on five of the contracts.”

“Who?” I demanded, cursing when he told me.

“He’s gone,” Joel chuckled. “You’ll never find him. You’ll never put a lid back on this. Good. Fuck you, bitch. Now we know the truth and will ruin you. It’s what you deserve.”

I snorted. “You know nothing, maggot. Who did you tell?”

He fought me but eventually admitted he hadn’t told anyone yet. I got the names of the others who worked with the warlock and how it all went down.

I smiled at him. “This is going to hurt.” Then I seared the information from his brain, enjoying when he screamed in pain.

“He won’t remember?” Ha-joon checked when I was done.

“Yeah, and more than that.” I shrugged when he seemed surprised. “It’s not like I’ve had training.”

“Good. Glad it hurt.” He dropped Joel like a sack of shit, kicking the sobbing vampire. “What now?”

“Now I go handle the rest,” I told him.

“Not alone,” he declared. “Let me help.”

I was going to argue but honestly, I could use the muscle. “I’ll explain later.”

He sighed. “I knew but I didn’t. I mean, I knew—yeah, we’ll talk. We need to hurry before it spreads.”

Agreed.

I called Alan, Carla, and a few of the most powerful witches on ASH’s payroll that I’d known the longest. They met me faster than was reasonable, obviously understanding the urgency and ready to jump in.

“Thank you,” I whispered, touched they dropped everything for me, the witches even opening portals to me. Alan and Carla had been at the hospital working on something, so that was easier.

“What are you, Ellie?” one of the witches asked.

I sighed, knowing that it was probably fair to answer. “I don’t know. I only know what my stepmother just told me. Apparently, my grandmother was some type of fae?” I shrugged.

“Their power wasn’t supposed to cross species, but there are legends about it,” she muttered, studying me.

“It skips generations if it does. I have some—I remember where I read some things about it. It was in a family journal. I think it was the grandson of a shifter and goblin. I’d have to check, but all the fae are long dead. ”

“Or returned to their world,” the other witch muttered. “No one really knows. The last known recorded was five hundred years ago.”

“I really don’t know,” I sighed.

“But information would be helpful because she does have gifts and no one to help her,” Alan worried. “It’s caused issues.”

“Not for decades,” I drawled.

“Because you’re always exhausted, too stressed, and not taking care of yourself. That needs to change,” he snapped.

“Now she’ll have help,” the first witch promised. “We will help her. Quietly. And we will handle the bastard who betrayed our kind with false magic. I’m his elder and it falls to me. You handle the board. We’ll get you the information and plug the leak from him. Also, anything else you need.”

“Thank you. Really.” I was shocked when they each hugged me.

“You’ve created a miracle here, Ellie,” the second said.

“This is a mecca and not just of medicine. It’s the one place we’re all just people, not witches to be ignored or magical humans to perform tricks.

I wish the whole world was so integrated and accepting as ASH.

This is a future I will fight for and support. ”

“And you saved both of us from shitty circumstances and protected us,” the first added. “We remember our friends.”

“Amen, girl,” Carla chuckled. “Now let’s go kick some ass because I want blood.” She smirked at Ha-joon. “And to see you in action. I know what you did to Joel. Those are deep claw marks going for a kidney.”

“He tried to shoot Ellie in the back so he could get the formula for the blood additive.”

I froze when the witches shared a look, but they didn’t say anything, wishing us luck and opening a portal.

“Can you do that?” Carla asked. She sighed when I snorted. “Damn, that would have been nice. Okay, let’s do this the old-fashioned way and drive.”