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since he first opened the pages of the Divine Comedy; he was a strong, invisible presence in Quiz’s life. He often hovered, unseen, behind his left shoulder. Over time, their banter became an intellectual — and at times humorous — debate on all things present in the boy’s consciousness.
    Quiz lay beside DJ, breathing heavily. He glanced at the bite marks on his right shoulder.
    * I don’t really understand what you see in your lusty encounters with this woman. *
    Lust, Dante. Lust.
    * Yes, yes, of course. But is there not more to the act of coupling? *
    I guess there could be. For now, I like her, and she likes me.
    * Like?  I liked certain kinds of food, but it didn’t
    cause me to form an obsession with it. *
    It’s the twenty-first century, pal. Not the fourteenth. The times they are a changin’.
    * Please!  Don’t tell me you’re about to start
    singing songs by that Dylan fellow again. *
    Then stop hassling me.
    * Have you never felt sexual ecstasy that occurs
    within the bonds of true love? *
    Quiz’s mind made no reply for several seconds.
    No. To be truthful, I haven’t. Sex is sex.
    * How misinformed you are! *
    Quiz looked at the bare shoulders and satin-smooth
    skin of DJ.
    I’ll stay misinformed for now, thank you very much.
    Quiz rolled onto his side and stared at the back of his slumbering lover. He wondered if Dante was right. He had never known true love. 

Chapter 9
     
    Artifact Room #4
    The Gith Institute
     
    Angela Marshall was a grad student in anthropology at New York University. Her short, dark brown hair complimented her dark brown eyes. With full red lips and eyebrows darker than most, she was a rare beauty that attracted the advances of a great many male grad students on campus. She regarded most as either geeks or lecherous young men with the hormones of a fourteen year old.
    Angela made extra money by serving as part-time curator of the many antiquities of philanthropist Winton T. Gith. Gith gave millions of dollars to charity yearly. His benign vice was to collect everything old and rare that struck his fancy, which also included forgotten or esoteric information. His appetite for knowledge was insatiable.
    Gith had thousands of first editions of the greatest literature mankind had produced. He even owned a First Folio by Shakespeare. In his artifact rooms were the fossils of whales and dinosaurs and ferns from the Jurassic period. He owned asteroid fragments, moon rocks, and priceless jewels from the kings and queens of England. He had insect collections, Egyptian and Greek maps of the world in ancient times, and certain spars from the Mayflower. Indeed, Gith owned relics and curiosities from almost every area of history and science. The Smithsonian had offered him a fortune for the entire collection, but Gith had declined.
    Marshall was currently researching two rather unusual areas for her boss: angel encounters and the Avignon Papacy.
    The Avignon Papacy dealt with a sixty-seven year period during which popes resided in France rather than Rome. Angela, who was in love with intellectual pursuits and all things historical, found the subject extremely interesting.
    Studying angel encounters was not very scientific in nature, but it nevertheless held equal interest for the grad student. Over 400,000 people worldwide claimed to have been visited by an angelic creature. It was a cultural phenomenon, which put it well within the purview of an anthropology student.
    What fascinated Angela most was the numerous types of encounters that had been reported. Many people claimed that the angels they saw in their homes looked very traditional: male or female beings with wings and robes. Some glowed as if bathed in supernatural light, while others looked very corporeal. Some were pure beings of light, and still others were shining humanoid creatures that bore no resemblance to angels portrayed through the centuries in art.
    Most astonishing of all, millions reported that the angels who