"What?" Lucien said, suddenly very worried. "Do you need to feed? Sarah, I know, and I'm okay with it, really. Take what you need to get by. You know I'll help you anyway I can." He took a few steps towards her, holding out his hands to accept her gentle embrace.

"The problem," she began... and then that smell, that amazing, damnable smell, caught hold and dragged her back in. Fighting it, struggling against it for all she may, Sarah still found herself stepping forward and embracing Lucien, her fangs sinking in forbidden ecstacy to deliver the Kiss.

The bliss was short-lived, however. Simply put: there was little spare room for more vitae in the undead woman, and only a small bit could be taken before she broke from the twisted parody of physical intimacy to push back from her erstwhile 'lover' once more.

"The problem," she finally managed as self-loathing at her weakness caught her heart in a vice grip, "is that you're addictive. Your blood. It's... it's like vitae sorta. Doesn't do the bond thing, but..." She sighed, getting a little more distance before sitting in a blend of nerves and misery on the edge of a chair. "It's thoroughly addictive. And I'm... yeah. Not good. Not good at all."

"You're addicted? To me?" A bit of shock mingled with humor in Lucien's voice as the man struggled to get a grip. It seemed one problem seemed to spiral into three others and he was at a complete loss on how to deal with them all. "To my blood, I mean. Well, you are a vampire, so it makes sense I guess."

Looking at her with a sense of concern he folded his arms. "I can't tell you what to do Sarah. I know it may be my blood, but I'm not against sharing it with you. Then again, should you choose to never partake of my awesomeness again, well, that's you decision too. Besides, it's just blood. What harm can it do?" He smiled as if there was no problem for them to worry over.

"What harm?" She looked up at Lucien with haunted eyes.

"It's an addiction. You don't understand, but I've never been addicted to anything in my life. I watched too many of my cousins and aunts and uncles that didn't have the right genes try to find their power at the bottom of a bottle. I watched some turn to drugs. I fought against that, swore I'd never fall into that trap.

"Then I turned into this. And I got to see whole new kinds of hooks, stuff that made booze and meth look tame. I've seen blood-addicted mortals, seen how they shake and claw for their next fix. I've seen a couple vitae-addicted leeches too - yeah, we're addictive to each other - doing the same damned thing. And I always told myself that there was no fucking way I'd ever let myself turn into a goddamned junkie."

She sighed, and her voice trembled. "And now, I am. What harm can it do? Only take away my freedom, Lucien. Only take my self-respect and self-control. Only piss blood over all those promises I made to myself."

"That's all," she finished with a whisper.

"You've been addicted to blood since the moment you ascended to what you are now." He said calmly. "Be it mine or anyone else's Sarah."

Casually he took a drink of pop then, while still swallowing, he held his arms out to shrug. "However, if there is a problem with my blood in particular Sarah, then you just don't drink any more. Easy peesy, problem solved." He smiled that brilliant smile. Nothing seemed to phase him sometimes, like he had all the answers and once in awhile Fate would allow him to be right.

To her credit, Sarah managed to grab her raging Beast in a choke-hold and throttle it back into place before it could reach out and cut the mage to ribbons. And try it did; his words of her being an addict to blood in general were as condescending - unintentionally, perhaps, but still such - as she could stand.

"And I suppose you're addicted to water?" she all but hissed through clenched teeth. "Addicted to protein? Carbohydrates? Vitamins? I'm not addicted to blood, other than yours. It's my basic nurishment. There's a difference."

Forcing the red heat of anger to subside, she tried to regain something resembling an even keel. With Lucien off the menu, their relationship would be changed; the Kiss was as close as she understood to genuine physical intimacy, and it was now as taboo as feeding from her Lupine cousins.

"Look, I'm sorry. I know that came off bad. But this is something that is really important to me. I hate the thought of being an addict, and I'm going to fight it. Which mean no more of the Kiss for us. Which," she admitted, "stinks, because I enjoyed the Kiss with you a lot, and I think you did too." Her tone had softened considerably by the end, a wistfulness in her voice that was not entirely the product of her addiction.

Rather than dwell further on this revelation, she tried to move back to the previous topic. "You said that you saw where the Oath-breaker lives. I don't pretend to know how; magic and I aren't exactly on a first-name basis. But if you could tell me where, it would be a huge help to me and the People."

No, Sarah, I'm not addicted to water because I don't have an orgasmic thrill every time I crack an Evian. He didn't say it however. Vampires were addicts because blood was all that gave them pleasure, so much so that they would forget how to enjoy real pleasures in the process. Of course it wasn't their fault, the Embrace took much from them leaving only phantoms of emotion and expression behind, but most forsook those those phantoms and relied on the blood to give them all they had lost.

He was saddened slightly by her outburst. He enjoyed sharing The Kiss with her, but she was right, the last thing he needed was for her to flip out wanting his blood and flay everyone in her path to get it. "Ashland Avenue & 3rd street. Santa Monica, Apt 402. I'm speculating, but that's where I saw him leave from, and he had the key to the mailbox of 402."

He walked away from the copper haired Gangrel, tossing his soda can in the small waste basked near the door. "If you hurry, you can catch him."

"We... we need to check out some things before that. Confirm some details. This isn't the sort of thing to go off on half-cocked."

Standing from the chair, Sarah walked softly across the room, hesitating a moment before laying a hand on Lucien's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I... we can try other things? The human things?"

Oh yeah, that came out just great. "What I mean is, I like you. You're my friend. You're my confidant. And in a strange sort of way, you're my lover. Blood is right out, but there has to be some other way to make this work. Not tonight - the scent is too fresh - but after."

"Your worried about us, when there are people out there who need you?" He half grinned, still processing several things in his mind. To Sarah it seemed like he may be mad at her or his feelings hurt, but in truth her recent words had started a series of mental webs being spun in his multiple minds as he tried to sort out a mystery in his head.

"We'll worry about our problems when there is more time." He smiled at her and yet his eyes seemed lost elsewhere. She had not idea that his mind was divided three ways, and each 'compartment' was thinking, calculating and tranferring information to the other compartments like a mental network putting pieces of a new puzzle together. "Velle est posse, Sarah. To be willing, is to be able."

"It's not a zero-sum game; I can worry about plenty at the same time." She gave a half-grin of her own.

"But you're right. I need to finish checking on a few things before I go off after the Oath-breaker. Like confirming that he is one."

Risking the scent, she leaned in and gave him a kiss. Not the vampiric parody, but a real, soft, gentle brushing of lips upon lips. Even so, his blood was stong, and she could linger only for a moment before backing off, a touch of blush tinging her dead cheeks. "Until later," she whispered... and then, was gone.