43 - Seven Demon Dwarves

*Come on, Zy. Tammy can fly us up, we can surprise Camille. – Evie*
Darkness stood against the wall sipping on his water and watching two of the other men playing pool in his brother’s man cave. Jasper may say that he was no longer interested in club life, but his man cave was only lacking a gaggle of club bunnies and leather.
A full bar with *two* kegs lined the adjacent wall to him. Along with the pool table, there were two dart boards, a pool table and an entire wall of big screen TVs. *Eight*. Why would anyone need eight TVs? Wood paneling walls were covered with sports memorabilia and pictures from various trips.
“Amos,” Jasper said as he racked the balls. “You and me?”
“Sure.” He pushed off from the wall and sat the water bottle down on the Harley Davidson coaster with a small shake of his head.
“Is that hot little piece of vanilla Marvin’s new girlfriend?” William, Keisha’s father, asked.
“She’s *my* girlfriend,” Darkness said selecting a pool stick.
“For now, anyway,” Jasper said with a dry chuckle. “You want to break?”
“You can,” came the cool reply.
Jasper lined up and broke the triangle shaped collection of balls. They bounced off the walls, but nothing went in. “You know she’s just using you.”
“For what?” Darkness asked as he sank two striped balls.
“Your money,” one of Keisha’s cousins said.
Sinking another striped ball, Darkness laughed. “She has her own money.”
Jasper scoffed, “With as young as she is, I’m sure it’s not hers.”
Darkness paused for a moment and then shook his head. With quick movements, he sank the rest of the balls before tossing his pool stick on the table. “I’m not someone you want to go against, you need to remember that, *Tramp*.”
Turning on his heel, he left the room and headed towards the kitchen. The women were laughing and talking, but he did not see his little Cam. A crash from upstairs had him taking the stairs two at a time. He found Nicki in her room trying to contain seven children between the ages of three and ten.
Her wooden shelving unit had been tipped over and all the items were now scattered across the floor. Several ceramic items were broken or cracked.
“Nicki?” Darkness asked softly.
She turned to face him and the tears rolling down her cheeks broke his heart. “I begged mom not to let them up here. They always destroy my stuff.” Behind her was the distinctive sound of pages being ripped from a book.
“Come here,” He opened his arms, and she moved into them. “Enough!”
The harsh word had all seven of them freezing and looking at the large man. The older ones saw the teen crying in his arms and smiled proudly.
“I have a new place for you to play,” Darkness said and guided them down the hall. He walked down the hall and opened the door to Jasper and Keisha’s room. The pristine room was too tempting for the hellions to resist.
Laughter bubbled up out of Nicki before she looked up at her uncle with fear in her eyes. “Mom’s going to get so mad.”
“And maybe she’ll think about this the next time that you have to watch seven little heathens on your own.” He kissed her temple, “Just make sure that they don’t get hurt.”
She giggled as the oldest jumped up and grabbed the shelf to get something off it. With the weight of a ten-year-old hanging on it, the shelf groaned and then came off the wall.
With a smile, he headed downstairs and then to the basement. Another loud crash followed him downstairs, and he knew he made the right choice when Keisha’s voice greeted him on the ground floor.
“It’s fine, I don’t like what she’s done to her room, now I get to fix it. Get rid of all that … *dark* crap.”
Unnoticed, Darkness turned and headed for the stairs to take him downstairs. Vin, Mitch and two of their male cousins sat playing Mario Cart. His Cam was nowhere to be seen.
Returning to the kitchen, he approached the five women who smiled at him. Queenie, a woman he could not stand and was constantly being shoved at him as a potential wife, approached him with a seductive smile.
“Where is Camille?”
With the angrily asked question that boomed through the house, the women fell silent. Jasper and the other three men came out of the man cave as the boys came up from the basement. Even the noise from upstairs stalled as Nicki and the Seven Demon Dwarves made their way to the landing to look down at the floor below.
“Hopefully, the little slut is out of my house,” Keisha declared. “She’s too young for you, and you can do so much better.”
“Like that slut?” Darkness demanded as he pointed at Queenie.
Defiantly, she stared down her brother-in-law. “And what’s wrong with my cousin?”
“Maybe I don’t want to be number five to be paying child support,” he suggested harshly. He cut cold eyes to the woman in question. “No one can make that same mistake so many times. Especially with three married men.”
Queenie hissed in a breath.
Turning on his heel, he met his brother’s eyes, “You ever going to tell your wife that one of her cousin’s kids is yours?”
“How… how did you…?” Jasper asked as his wife slapped her cousin behind Darkness.
“I told you before, I’m not someone you want to go against.” Darkness reminded his older brother. “You better hope to god that I can find her.”
He headed up the stairs and pulled the phone out of his pocket as he headed for the guest room that Camille was staying in. Everything was just as it had been that morning when he had slipped into it before everyone else was awake.
The backpack and helmet were in the small wingback chair. Her jacket hung on the hook on the back of the door. Her computers were on the bed where she had been working on her coding of the websites while she was on the phone with him as the rest of the house slept.
As he turned around, he saw one of the kids in the doorway, his eyes focused on the two computers. Darkness stepped over and towered over the child, with his size filling the doorway, the boy was forced to step back and look up.
“Step foot in that room and I guarantee you will regret it.”
The boy swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes, sir,” he whispered.
“Now, get in there and help Nicki clean up her room.” Darkness pointed towards her room and then looked at the other kids. “Move your asses.”
All seven kids rushed into Nicki’s room as the doorbell rang downstairs. Darkness walked towards his niece who looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“Thank you, Amos,” she hugged her uncle.
“You’re welcome, sweetheart,” he hugged her back as his brother’s voice floated up the stairs.
“Zydeco. Was not expecting you.”
“Poppa Zy?” She asked quietly.
“Why don’t you go see.” He suggested as he pulled his phone back out and tried again to call Camille.
“You remember Evie and Tammy?”
He could hear the introductions and greetings happening below him. But Darkness was focused on finding Camille and did not hear who all had arrived. His calls kept being rejected, being rejected and sent to voicemail.
“Where’s Darkness?” Tammy asked.
“Probably somewhere with his little Cam.” Zydeco smirked.
“Where is your brother?” Zydeco asked slowly and calmly.
“Upstairs.” Jasper answered.
“And his little Cam?” Zydeco demanded loudly. “Where. The fuck. Is. Camille?”
“I guess the little slut didn’t like hearing the truth.” Dominique finally said.
“And what is the truth?” Zydeco demanded.
“That girl is too young for a man like him.” She replied.
“And you told her this?” Darkness asked coming downstairs.
“Someone needed to.”
Fighting with the darkness inside him was fear. It was sleeting outside. She didn’t like being cold. What if she got sick. Lost. What if she couldn’t find her way home. People got lost in the woods all the time.
They died in the woods.
“She’s not answering my calls.” Everyone could hear the fear in his voice. “She doesn’t have her jacket. What if something happened to her?”
“Calm down, brother.” Tank said walking towards Darkness. “We’ll find her.”
Zydeco walked over to stare down at Dominique. “Does that sound like a man who is too old for loving a woman?”
“No.” she said quietly.
“You better hope to fuck nothing happened to her.” He warned as he pulled out his phone and scrolled to Camille’s name. “I don’t want to hear a fucking sound out of any of you assholes.”
He clicked the green circle to call her and activated the speaker phone.