Before I could bring myself to knock on the tall, pale wooden doors, doubting not just my decision to come here but all of my life choices that had led me up to this moment, one of them opened. Snapping my hand back down, I went still and eyed the human in front of me, starting to sweat even more.

She was tall and slender, with blonde hair cascading over her shoulder and a soft smile on her face. Flowing beige trousers swept over the tops of her bare feet, and her beige shirt was loose, showing only a hint of her figure. Her skin was pale but tanned, like some humans who spent time in the sun. It was almost the exact same shade as her clothing.

I stared at her in silence, wanting to turn and stride right back down the stairs. The only splash of colour on her entire person was her blue eyes, but they were as pale and dull as the rest of her. I’d seen a lot of humans in my life—not that I left my house much—but I obviously hadn’t paid much attention to any of them, because this one looked like any hint of colour, of life, had been drained out of her.

Did all the humans here look like this?

In the seconds I had been staring at her in silence, her smile had grown, her eyes becoming livelier. Excited.

“Oh my word.” She dropped to her knees, making my shoulders want to hunch. “This is… Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. We are blessed. What an honour!”

What in the flying fuck? I could feel myself recoiling in horror, but I forced my face to smooth out into a blank mask.

“Why’s that?” I rarely spoke in this stifling humanoid form, so my voice was gravelly. At least it probably made me sound more intimidating than I actually was.

I thought I saw her shiver. Whaaaaat?

“We never get such esteemed visitors. I can’t… I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it’s happening.” She stood shakily and bowed, then shuffled back to hold the door open wider. “Please, come in. The high priest will be overjoyed.”

Heaving a silent breath, I stepped into the compound and looked around. I’d heard rumours of this place. Everyone had. The cult that worshipped my kind. The humans who had dedicated their lives to studying us—although I’m not sure what they thought they gave us, or we gave them—likening us to gods.

I hadn’t actually believed it. Not until this strange human woman had begun bowing and gushing over me being here, as if I wasn’t a miserable loner who spent my time getting high in front of the TV.

It made me twitchy. What exactly did they think made us so much better than them, to the point of wanting to worship us? Yes, we were stronger and faster. But so were fucking… bears and dogs. Did humans worship those? Okay, we could shape our forms into something more closely resembling them. I supposed that was probably pretty strange to humans. And I supposed the sharp teeth and claws and tails could make us seem threatening to them, but those things all remained when I took this form.

No humans had seen my true form, but I knew other demiurgus liked to show off. To go on TV or prowl through the city in their real skin, grinning widely at all the humans to make them shriek and laugh with delight and fear.

Fucking show offs, I thought viciously, before realising that the human woman was still gazing at me with open adoration.

After glancing at her warily, I took in the large entrance hall we now stood in. The walls were painted the same beige as the stone outside and the smooth tiled floor. All the wood was blond as well. The human in front of me looked liable to melt into it all and become one with the building.

The only hints of darkness were the huge stone reliefs mounted on the walls. Obsidian gleamed under the bright spotlights, and my gaze trailed over painstakingly carved depictions of my kind in various poses: standing tall, head back and arms outstretched, like some kind of messiah. Crouched over in a threatening stance with sharp teeth displayed in a snarl. One even showed a human clutched to a demiurgus’s chest, their clawed fingers tangled in the person’s long hair like they were cinched in some loving embrace.

My eyeballs strained as I fought the urge to roll them, but a kernel of unease flared again. Was it actually, like, wrong of me to come here? Were these people… brainwashed somehow? Would I be taking advantage? Would they fall over themselves for the chance to become my roommate?

Fucking creepy.

But if I didn’t do this, I was pretty sure that would be it. Alone forever. Not that I was here for any kind of romantic arrangement—with a human? No way—but… I’d been a little taken aback by how lonely I’d gotten since Agma left.

I never thought I’d care. When Agma had begun packing up her clothes to leave, I’d lashed out, wounded by her sharp words, snarling that I couldn’t wait to once again be left in peace and solitude. That I didn’t need her or anyone else. That I was happy alone.

She’d looked over at me, eyes narrowed, and said, “That’s fortunate, Greid. Because you will be.”

And then she had proceeded to make sure it remained that way.

The more time passed, the less I enjoyed my own company. I’d had a taste of companionship with Agma, and now I… craved it. Much to my fucking annoyance. My feelings toward her had become snarled and tangled in the time since she’d left, so now I couldn’t rightly say whether I had truly loved her or not.

It had felt like it at the time. It was why I’d allowed myself to be open with her. To tell her the things I wanted. And then she’d left.

Not that I was here to go after those specific things. Humiliation flared again, making me shift before I forced myself to go still, because the woman was still gazing at me with reverence. I wasn’t here for intimacy. Just a companion. Just to have another person breathing the same air as me in my home. For some reason, that felt infinitely more pathetic than if I’d been here to fuck someone.

I’d figured it’d be easy to find a companion here. Just someone to live in my house with me, and who better than a human who was eager to learn everything they could about my kind? I wouldn’t have to deal with another overbearing demiurgus taking over my living room or rearranging my shit or constantly trying to debate with me about literally everything. Agma had been the most argumentative person in the world, purely because she enjoyed it.

I did not enjoy it. At all.

My hair was tied back in a knot, but strands had slipped loose on my long walk up those fucking stairs. I raised my chin and brushed one back, then stared at the woman in silence. Waiting.

She jolted and gave me another deep bow. I suppressed my wince. “Please, let me show you to the formal reception room. We have a suite of rooms here kept especially for if… for when our Greaters visit.”

My eye twitched as I followed her to a large set of double doors on our left, these ones unlike the others. They were made of black stone, and the slender human woman struggled to push one open. In silence, I stepped as close as I dared and placed a hand above hers, opening it with ease.

She shivered again, breath catching from my proximity. I immediately stepped back and clenched my hands into fists behind my back. Yes, it had been a monumental fucking mistake coming here. If they were all this eager—this unnervingly doting—I didn’t want one. I couldn’t think of anything worse.

The room we entered was made entirely of black stone. The walls, the floor, the ceiling. Candlelight flickered from wrought iron wall sconces and a huge candelabra above our heads. The obsidian furniture gleamed—two long, stout couches either side of a smooth coffee table, the seats topped with black velvet cushions.

In here, I was the one who could melt into the walls and vanish. The light was too low to bring out the deep green hue in my hair and claws, and my black suit blended into my skin perfectly. I eyed the woman again. She was a single washed-out spot of beige in the room, looking small and vulnerable in the pressing blackness that surrounded us, but she didn’t seem frightened or ill at ease whatsoever. Her sleepy look from before, when she’d opened the door, was gone. She appeared almost frantic with excitement, bouncing on her toes.