A Hunt Sounds Fun

"I'm…. In love with her?" he asked incredulously. "No one in my abnormal family has ever felt anything that didn't involve benefit for themselves," Ladislas said lightly. The sentence seemed to have eased his worries and he rolled his eyes at the very thought of having felt something inherently human.

Penelope shrugged. "It could be. But from my observation of humans: you miss this Anna person a lot, Master. You think about her all the time. You can't eat anything because when you think of food, you think about her starving somewhere out there. You walked all over the city looking for her but couldn't find her." She shrugged.

Ladislas glared. She had expressed his actions with great logic. Something he couldn't refute.

"But why couldn't I find her?" he asked.

She shrugged. "You rarely use your powers. And if she kept her head down and doesn't really stand out in a crowd…. She might have been in one of those places you visited."

"No, I would have caught her scent if she was in one of those places," he said confidently.

"Then why don't you track her down? You used your magic to heal her. You can trace your magic back to her, surely."

Ladislas took in a deep breath. "You keep speaking like Faulkner," he said.

"Who is this Fucker guy?" Penelope asked him with a small smile.

"Faulkner," Ladislas repeated automatically.

"His name sounds better when I say it," Penelope commented with the roll of her eyes.

She handed him a tissue and Ladislas stared at it. "Your eyes are leaking."

"Nonsense."

"Master, you will need your strength if we are going to find this girl," Penelope said.

"I don't like the look in your eyes. You look like you are about to hunt a mouse."

Penelope shrugged. "A tiger never changes in essence. If Master truly doesn't like the girl, you won't feel sad if I catch her and bring her to your feet, will you? I feel like she has spurned you by leaving you high and dry."

Ladislas squinted. "A hunt sounds rather fun," he admitted.

"I have never seen you invested in this way over a human. Something is obviously strange about this one if you reacted so strongly. A cat doesn't like to be curious."

Ladislas nodded again.

"You have never been in love before," Penelope said.

Ladislas started to protest but she cut him off.

"I don't want to sound like a know-it-all, but I have been human much longer than you have been." She quietened down and waited to see his response. Seeing that he wasn't offended for being called out for his lack of humanity, she continued. "I have looked at pretty boys like that. Your eyes lit up like you found a new source of water."

Ladislas frowned. "Those are contradictory. One shows that you are fickle and only see the humans for their pretty, hairless skin, and another tells me that you look at them like food… for sustainability. Even philosophers would spit upon your analogy." He scoffed.

"Master, I am an animal. I can't twist my words like you can. But I know what this… love thing is."

From the outside, this conversation sounded weird, but for these two: one newly human and the other utterly inhuman, this was a normal conversation.

"I don't agree with your analysis, but I think whatever it is: it is awful," he admitted.

"Yes, it will get better when you find her. Why wouldn't she want to be with you? It will work out, Master."

"You sound so sure that I want to be with her," Ladislas responded, marveling at his servant's confidence.

"Yes, you have me to help you now. But before we start tracking this guy down, I want two things from you. Actually, three, now that I come to think of it."

Ladislas scratched his eyebrow and looked at Penelope critically.

"Like what?"

"First, you need to change your bedsheet and give the clothes up for laundry. It's just nasty. Even I groomed myself better than that," she started. "Second, you need to recall what she looked like: distinctive birthmarks, tattoos, that sort of thing. It won't be easy finding her if we don't know who she is. But I will try my hardest."

"I know her name. It's Anna Dunn," Ladislas said simply. "She did promise to repay me."

Penelope startled. "So, you made a contract with her through those words! You can definitely track her down, then!" she admonished.

He sighed.

"Have you tried?" she asked, pressing him on.

He rolled his eyes before closing them. He squeezed shut and then let his powers throw through his body. Despite how hard he tried, he sensed nothing from her. Not a hint of that lemon scent to show where she was.

She was hidden from his magic.

"Nothing," he breathed.

Penelope looked perplexed. "It must be because your powers are out of control. We can start finding her the human way… when your power returns—"

Ladislas made her stop. "I don't think a contract was formed."

Usually, he gifted favors through a verbal contract. He had technically saved Anna, a human's life, and she had promised to repay him. That was all the contract needed. But somehow, it seemed to have fallen through the cracks. This had never happened to him before.

Now, he wondered if he needed to go down to that sweltering heat of hell and ask his sperm donor what the hell was going on with him.

"If she was at your university, it will be easy to get her full name, identity card number, blood type, and religion. We can even get her permanent address and all other information from her application forms and fees payment receipts," Penelope chirped.

"How do you know so much about finding humans?" he asked, amused.

"Well, it's common sense, really. Master, I need to pay taxes to the government to be alive, I need to have some street smarts to not allow the government to eat up everything that I make." She fanned herself with her hand. "It's hard living as a human. There are so many laws to follow. And my powers only extend to when you want me to act."