Sebastian didn't step away as she leaned into him, it was... a pleasant surprise. He actually put his arms around her, if a little hesitant that he would scare her off by doing so. As she explained Seb felt ice coil tightly in the pit of his stomach... Anna was letting Jason bite her?! That wasn't like her at ALL and it was something that had to stop... he wouldn't let someone take advantage of his friends distress. Anna was depressed enough without being addicted to the bite... it was easy to get that way when you were in a bad place in your life anyway but he'd never expected it of Anna... She was constantly going on and on about how nieve a dhampir girl would have to be to believe that a moroi male would bite her for any reason more than his own satisfaction...

He looked back down at Serena as she pulled away and frowned, taking her hand and feeling it shake. He knew what that was... and even if he couldn't completely take it away, he could help her feel better. He pushed the light and warmth that was the healing part of Spirit at her and eased the edge off the withdraw... "Easy Little Dhampir... that's never going to happen to you again... and we're going to help Anna... somehow..." He grimaced, if he approached her about it he knew Anna would just get defensive. If Serena went to her about it then it put HER in a bad position what with her past... He saw another way... but not a way he'd have chosen if there was another one.

"Anna isn't going to be happy but I'll tell her I read it from you, that's not a lie... I did read something... but... I think I'm going to have to talk to her.... Either way, we should avoid telling Gunner about this." He took a breath, "I'll try talking to her first, hopefully that will help... if not... this could get ugly fast... I know Anna is going to the dance tomorrow night." He'd already meant to ask Serena but had been nervous about it... Maybe he should feel guilty but this gave him the perfect excuse to do so. "Will you go to the dance with me...? Not just because of Anna... I think you'd make a wonderful date. If... I'm not too forward."

~*~

Anna laughed, "Maybe..." She considered what Basil would look like as an angel and shook her head with a grimace. "Too sweet... Hmmm... You'd make a good devil though," she teased.

She paused in the woods and indicated how Basil should stand, Anna took her stance as well... She took it slow starting off, letting Basil get the hang of the back and forth of sparring... and then actually picked up pace.

~*~

The day ended, it wasn't very eventful after they all retreated to their dorms... Plus, most everyone was excited for the dance the next day. Everyone had spent their time talking about what they'd be going as. Since it was a weekend, there would be no classes and so Anna spent most of her day brooding and trying to decide what she was going to do as far as make-up. It was a good thing she'd warned Basil off of being an angel or they both would have ended up as one. Apparently, Jace had thought it clever to use a costume that went with her name 'Angelina'. It was also what he'd been calling her the past month... Angel instead of Anna... or Ross.... The remembrance of those nicknames hurt and she pushed it away, pulling on the long white and silver gown that clung to her like a second skin and slit up the side all the way to the hip. She wore silver heels and the silver necklace and earrings that Anya had given her. The feathery wings were attached to the dress and her halo attached to a silver headband. She didn't think that the halo or the wings looked right on her... She wasn't really 'angel' material... but the way the dress was made did accent her curves beautifully.

She wore a corsage over her wrist... which had a fresh bite on it from when she'd seen Jace earlier to get her costume. She wondered what he was going to be... She headed out of her room after doing her makeup and headed towards the gym where the ball was being held. She slipped the white and silver paper mache mask on and stepped inside... spotting Sebastian who was dressed as a cheshire cat. He had purple and pink cat ears poking out from his fedora, a purple and pink cat tail that poked out from the tails of his tuxedo vest. He wore pink and purple striped fingerless gloves and he'd used black face paint to paint a 'stitched' grin onto one side of his face, the upper half of the other side saw his eye covered with a vivid yellow 'cats eye' contact with slitted pupil and the same black face paint used to give that eye an almond cat shape to the shape of his eye as well. The upper part with the eye was colored purple, the lower part with the mouth was colored pink. It was... pretty epic actually.

What seemed like forever ago they might have all dressed in a theme to match... She could see Gunner being the Mad Hatter, herself maybe being the red queen.... Anya being Alice... She sighed wistfully and spotted Jace with Rae. He was dressed all in black, eyeliner under the already intense blue eyes. He wore his own fedora tipped low over eyes that she could now see were actually covered in red contacts. He had dark circles colored under his eyes and blood at the corner of his mouth and Anna... didn't think it was funny at all because obviously... he was supposed to be a Stigoi. He was getting lots of complements from everyone else but Anna felt... sick... instead of going to him she headed to the drink table and avoided the spiked punch in favor of ice water.