Taking the Initiative
by Rainne
Chapter 8
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When Dakota and Faith walked up to the doorway of Abbie's inner sanctum, they were greeted by quite possibly the strangest thing either of them had seen — and that was saying a lot. Nicki was standing in the center of the room, literally surrounded by a cloud of cats. All of Abbie's cats and kittens were hovering in the air around the youngster, who was laughing and coaxing the animals to walk about on the air.
"Come here, Meka, here kitty kitty," Nicki was saying. "Look, Little E, here's a toy."
They stepped through the door, not wanting to startle the child into dropping the animals, but she surprised them by turning to see them and slowly lowering the cats all to the floor, where they immediately scattered like a flock of seagulls in a parking lot when cruel children drive cars into their midst. "Hey! Miss Faith! Miss Dakota! You're back!" She launched herself at them, hugging them both. "I'm so glad. How was Germany? You were gone for so long! Miss Faith, did they hurt you?"
"Easy, child, let them breathe," came Abbie's voice from the doorway. She entered with a smile and a hug for Dakota, and offered her hand to Faith. "I've not met you," she said casually. "I'm Abbie."
"Faith," Faith replied. "I, uh... I run the school with Dakota."
"You're Dakota's lover," Abbie corrected gently. "I know, dear. Don't be shy." She turned back toward the door as another figure filled the entry, this one a blonde girl with a mischievous face and bleached-blonde hair. She was wearing a white tee shirt, red kilt, and black knee-high lace-up combat boots. "This one's mine," Abbie said, gesturing. "This is Meghan. Baby, these are the vampires I told you about — Dakota and Faith."
"Hey, cool!" Meghan exclaimed. "Nice to meet you."
"So you've come to spirit our young scamp away from us, have you?" Abbie asked. "These last couple of months have been lovely — we'll miss her."
"Gotta do it," Faith said. "She's on her way to the States."
"Well, send us a postcard once in a while, dear," Abbie said, hugging the girl.
"I will," Nicki replied.
"Nicki, go pack, hon. We've got to get out of here pretty quick," Dakota said. After she was gone, the vampire continued. "We've been gone for over two months. The school's probably in a shambles — Maisri can't really control the kids all that well."
"Oh, I understand, sweetie," Abbie assured her. "You do what you have to do."
Nicki was back before long, her knapsack and another bag full to bursting. Faith blinked at her. "Did you have all that stuff when you got here?"
Nicki shook her head. "Meghan took me shopping," she said.
"Good Lord," Faith groaned.
"Don't worry about it," Meghan said, grinning. "Just get on back to school."
And so they went.
"What all did you get, Nick?" Dakota asked as they got on the road heading south.
"Well, I got school uniforms for the girls' school here, where Abbie sent me. And when I told Meghan I was going to Sunnydale, she said I couldn't wear just my uniforms there and so she bought me some regular clothes, too."
"It'll be useful," Faith commented. "That was really nice of her."
They played road games as they drove along, memory games and I-Spy, and even a form of slug-bug adapted to more of a slug-ford-prefect, to keep themselves occupied on the long drive back. The sun was coming up when they were challenged on the road into the Academy.
Faith was behind the wheel and puttering down the dirt road when she rounded a bend and saw two mounted girls blocking the road. She drew up to a stop in front of them. One girl walked her horse up to the front bumper of the car; the other walked hers around to the driver's side and dismounted, leaning down. "State your business —" she began, and then stopped. "Faith?"
Faith blinked. "Janna?"
Dakota raised her head from the opposite window. "Huh? What?"
"Wake up baby — it's Janna. We're home."
The two vampires got out of the car to hug Janna and her gleeful Partner, Dawn Summers. "Boy, are we ever glad to see you!" Dawn exclaimed. "Buffy called three days ago to say they'd saved the world again over there and wanted to know if you were back yet, but nobody on campus had heard from you in two months and we didn't even know where you took Nicki."
"Well, here we are," Dakota said, sighing and leaning back against the hood of the car. "It's been... insane."
"I bet!" Janna exclaimed. "If the state of the Academy when I got here is anything like what you two have been going through, I don't envy you in the least!"
Faith groaned. "Everything's fallen apart, hasn't it?"
"Nope," Janna exclaimed, grinning. "In fact, everything here's shipshape. Come on up to the school and we'll tell ya all about it."
Everything at the Academy was in fact shipshape — in better condition than it had been before the whole sorry mess began, in fact. When Janna had arrived at the school, only a week after Faith and Dakota had headed north to Newcastle with Nicki in tow, the place had begun to unravel. Miss Maisri, the magick teacher, was unsuited to manage the entire compound by herself, and some of the more rambunctious of the youngsters were beginning to take advantage of that fact.
"So I called a Slayer meeting," Janna explained. "We met with Maisri in the book tower because we didn't want any of the kids knowing what we were up to... and Maisri set up really strong wards after Nicki's little stunt. So we put our heads together and decided that if somebody was gonna run the place, then somebody had best get about the business of runnin' it."
Kerry, Maria, Callie, Janna and Siobhan had forced Maisri to sit and make several executive decisions with them in order to keep the place running smoothly. Siobhan, who had raised four younger siblings, had been given the job of handling discipline problems among the Potentials, and been given a fairly free hand to take care of things the way she'd seen fit. Callie had taken over the responsibility of teaching mathematics and English classes to all the students. Maria had taken over teaching science and history classes, and had built an entire curriculum for her students which merged Council history with the history taught to public school students by the Crown. Janna, who had trained with a Watcher for longer than any of the other active girls, had taken over the martial training of all the girls. Kerry, who had a good head for business, had taken over the day-to-day running of the Academy.
They had also chosen permanent Partners. Deciding that, as active Slayers and as placed in positions of authority over the other students, they needed to act the part, they had worked carefully together over a week's time, comparing and contrasting personality traits and abilities, working as a group to choose the best Partner for each Slayer. Janna had paired up with Dawn, as Dakota had foreseen; Kerry with Kate Miglione; Callie with Tiffany Moore; Maria with Virginia Marcos and Siobhan with Ebony Brooks.
"Unfortunately," Janna commented as they sat around a table in the Great Hall, the other young Slayers coming to join them, "that left us with a little bit of a Partner shortage for the other kids. Fortunately, a couple of Dakota's Child Services contacts were willing to deal with Kerry."
Kerry had gotten on the international phone lines and called every single contact that Dakota had in Child Welfare, seeking students of the proper age and mindset who were currently without permanent foster placement. She had gotten more than she bargained for. "So, I'm making calls, right? And the next thing I know, I've got twenty-three girls between the ages of eight and thirteen on planes into Heathrow. Now I need Potentials!" the young blonde laughed.
"Twenty-three girls?" Faith exclaimed.
Kerry nodded. "So we're going crazy with cleaning out the south tower to make more dorm rooms, trying to figure out what the hell we're going to do about teaching these kids because they're younger than anyone else we have. So we decided to advertise for teachers. Wouldn't you know it — the first person to answer our ad is from a cadet branch of one of the old Watcher families! She's an elementary-level language arts teacher, and she said she knew just where she could find exactly what we needed. She shows up a week later with an entire elementary education department behind her."
"But now we need Potentials!" Callie took up the thread of the conversation. "So Maisri straps her mojo on and starts doing the locator spells, focusing on younger girls to match the new ones. She found 'em. The last of them arrived two days ago. We have a precise balance between Potentials and Partners for the first time since the Academy was begun."
Faith and Dakota were shaking their heads. "You guys are amazing."
Maria blushed. "We want to do our best for you, si?"
"You did, Maria," Dakota assured her. "You all did wonderfully."
Janna giggled. "Callie wanted to break the girls up into Houses, like we were Hogwarts or something, and have a House Cup and everything, but we haven't had time to work out the logistics of that yet."
"No Quidditch yet, though," Callie mused. "I haven't been able to find any spells to make the brooms fly."
Faith shuddered. "No Quidditch, please. Kotie made me watch that movie. I'd be afraid someone would fall off and break their neck."
Callie sighed. "Fine."
Dakota glanced up at the clock. "You all need your sleep. Tomorrow morning we'll reconvene and you girls can take us all over the various changes you've implemented, but I really like the sound of everything. You've done fabulous jobs."
"Thanks, Miss Dakota!" the girls all chorused, and the merry group broke up as each girl headed for her bed. The two vampires headed for their own as well. Dakota peeked into the maids-closet to make sure Nicki was where she was supposed to be and then turned to find Faith kneeling on the bed facing her, grinning wickedly and very naked.
Dakota grinned back and made short work of her own clothing, then came to the bed with Faith. "Well, now," she purred. "Seems like maybe we've got an account to settle."
Faith grinned, reaching for Dakota's hands. "I believe you may be right." She pulled her lover onto the bed and laid her down. "You just relax and let me do my job here, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am," Dakota replied with a chuckle that turned into a gasp when Faith's mouth descended upon her left nipple. "Oh, baby," she whispered. "Yeah..."
Faith grinned and grazed the nipple with her teeth, then moved over to the other while working the first one with her fingers. She licked and sucked at the nipples until Dakota was moaning beneath her, then slowly licked and kissed a trail down Dakota's torso to her stomach, which she lavished with little nips and kisses in a spiral that centered at Dakota's navel. Faith slid her tongue into her lover's nipple and was rewarded with a squeak and a gasp. "Baby... please..."
Faith slowly began moving closer, dropping kisses all the way down to the thatch of pubic hair. She settled herself between Dakota's thighs and went to work with her mouth, licking and sucking at every available inch of flesh. She brought her lover to climax rapidly, doing all the little tricks she knew would make Dakota come the fastest. As Dakota panted, slowly coming down from her orgasm, Faith fished around in the bedside table until she found their favorite toy — a strap-on they'd nicknamed Moby Dick. She donned the equipment rapidly, applied some lubricant and slid up Dakota's body to kiss her, then slowly began to slide the dildo into Dakota's aching entrance.
Dakota moaned and clutched at Faith's back, digging her fingernails in as the sensation of penetration pressed deeper into her body. When Faith began to slowly thrust with her hips, Dakota raised her legs and wrapped them around Faith's waist, letting her reach even deeper. She began to gasp, and then to quietly moan Faith's name over and over. "Oh, yeah, Faith, baby, yeah, Faith, make me come for you baby, make me come for you... oh, fuck, baby, I'm gonna come... I'm coming!"
At the height of Dakota's orgasm, Faith leaned forward and bit her lover's neck, adding suction at the jugular to the surges below. Dakota grabbed Faith's wrist and bit into it as well, and as she came explosively under Faith, she shared that orgasm with her even as they both shared their blood.
When it was over and they lay together, exhausted and on the verge of sleep, Dakota murmured into Faith's neck. "I love you, Faith."
Faith pulled Dakota closer and nuzzled into her hair. "I love you, too, Kotie. I really do."