Into the Ether - Complete

Summer of Love: Part 2

"I've never heard of it," I said suspiciously to Dimitri. "Are you sure you're not making it up?!"

He laughed that warm, rich chuckle of his.

"I promise you I'm not, milaya. Romanian Measles is seriously debilitating to Dhampir. Moroi get a little sick, but it's much more severe for Dhampir. It's one of the only things that can really make Dhampir ill. There's been an outbreak at St. Vladimir's and now at Court. I rang your doctor today, and she said we're safest staying on the property without visitors and going to the human town if we need anything. She doesn't want to run the risk of you catching it."

I hardly left the property these days – but now I was told I couldn't, of course, I immediately wanted to.

"How long are we talking?"

"A fortnight at least," Dimitri said with a sigh. "Possibly a month."

"A month?! Stuck here?"

"Well we can go out into the human world, we just can't go near Moroi or other Dhampir until everyone recovers."

"Who do we know who has it?" I asked curiously.

"Pavel does," Dimitri chortled. "I rang Abe, and apparently Pavel is being a big baby about it. Alyce's boy has it too, although a milder case, so she's temporarily moved in over there and has the two of them bundled up together in the TV room at Abe's house in the guest accommodations at Court."

"Won't she get it?"

"You can only get it once, milaya. Like me, Alyce had it as a young child. Celeste rang from her parent's house earlier, and she's been recalled to St. Vlad's, so she won't be making her planned trip to Court next week. She's already had it too, so they need her back at the Academy because half the Guardians are down with it."

"Maybe I've already had it?" I asked hopefully.

"Afraid not," Dimitri said. "I rang St. Vladimir's, and there's no record of you ever having had it. But since you might have had it before you started there, I rang and checked with your mother."

"You spoke with Janine?" I whispered in surprise.

"I did," my Russian God replied, looking at me carefully to gauge my reaction. It had been a month since graduation. Over four months since I told her I was pregnant. And we still hadn't spoken.

"She said you hadn't had it as a child. She stressed how important it was you do not contract it while pregnant. It can be dangerous for the baby."

"Ok," I said shivering. I'd stay quarantined here for a year if it kept Junior safe.

"She'd like to speak with you. She asked me to let you know she'd like it if you called."

"She has a phone too, doesn't she?!" I asked peevishly.

"She does, but she didn't want to spring a phone call on you out of the blue. She said she'd leave the ball in your court."

"What does she want to say?" I asked him. "What did she say to you?"

"Not much. She mostly wanted to know how your pregnancy was going."

"She knows we're together?" I checked. I mean – after what happened at graduation, I'm pretty sure everyone knew Dimitri and I were together.

"Yes."

"And?"

"She just said she hoped I was taking care of you."

"That's it?"

"I know – I was expecting more, too," he admitted. "She sounded hopeful you'd call."