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I wasn't awake, apparently, when my Master arrived to collect me, and I was spirited home by him, in his ain in my bed

I kneanted only him when my eyes opened And it seemed the fleshy repasts of the last few days had only er to see if his enchanted white body would respond to the more tender tricks I'd learned I threw myself on him when he finally came in behind the curtains, and I unloosed his shirt and sucked his nipples, discovering that for all their disturbing whiteness and coldness they were soft and obviously intily natural way to the root of his desires

He lay there, graceful and quiet, letting me play with hiave me the blood kisses, all memories of human contact were obliterated, and I lay helpless as always in his arms It seemed our world then was not merely one of the flesh, but of a ave way

Towards ht hi by himself in the studio, the scattered apprentices fallen asleep like the unfaithful Apostles in Gethsemane

He wouldn't stop for my questions I stood behind hi on tiptoe, I whispered my questions in his ear

"Tell ic blood inside you?" I bit his earlobes and ran"Were you born into this state, a about this as to suppose that you were transformed"

"Stop it, Amadeo," he whispered, and continued to paint He worked furiously on the face of Aristotle, the bearded, balding elder of his great painting, The Academy

"Is there ever a loneliness in you, Master, that pushes you to tell someone, anyone, to have a friend of your own mettle, to confide your heart to one who can comprehend?"

He turned, startled for once by my questions

"And you, spoiled little angel," he said, lowering his voice to entleness, "you think you can be that friend? You're an innocent! You'll be an innocent all of your days You have the heart of an innocent You refuse to accept truth that doesn't correspond with so faith in you which makes you ever the little monk, the acolyte- "

I stepped backwards, as angry as I'd ever been with him "No, I won't be such!" I declared "I'uise of a boy, and you know it Who else dreams of what you are, and the alchemy of your powers? I wish I could drain a cupful of your blood froht and determine what is its h my veins! I am your pupil, yes, your student, yes, but to be that, I must be a ether, you call that innocence? I am a man "

He burst into the hter It was a treat to see him so surprised

"Tell me your secret, Sir," I said I put my arms around his neck and laid my head on his shoulder "Was there a Mother as white and strong as you ho brought you forth, the God-Bearer, from her celestial womb?"

He took my arms and moved me back away from him, so that he could kisstoatto be anything he wished

"Of the n whiteness which is the substance of clouds and innocence alike," he said "But no Mother gave birth toon in his years Look- " He lifted my face with both hands and made e which once marked me, here at the corners of my eyes "