Phoenix in My Fortune (A Monster Haven Story Book 6) Read Online Free PDF

space, I actually walked around during the day. Outside!”
    His skin wasn’t exactly a normal color. It had started as a mottled, pale gray, but now it was darker and didn’t look so
translucent,
all the way to his pointed ears and sparsely haired skull. Even his enormous yellow eyes were different, though the difference was more from an inner glow than any cosmetic difference. I was glad to see he’d stopped wearing the plain, presentable dress shirts and polos Sara had tried to get him to wear a few months ago. He’d returned to draping his tall, lanky figure in a bright Hawaiian shirt and yellow-and-green-striped chef’s pants.
    “A month of sunshine looks fantastic on you,” I said, squeezing his arm.
    I returned my attention to Sara and gave her a closer look. Gone were the tailored suits and perfectly arranged hair. Sara had embraced her newly acquired demonhood with open arms. She’d let her silver hair grow out and left it hanging loose down her back. The sun hadn’t altered the color of her glittering gold skin, but how she chose to cover that skin had changed. She wore a loose-fitting skirt with colorful, hand-painted aboriginal pictures on it and what appeared to be a red and gold scarf that she’d wrapped around her waist, then crossed to cover her breasts and tied behind her neck. Her stomach was bare, revealing a brand new piercing in her belly button. A tiny golden sun with a ruby in the center sparkled up at me.
    She was a brand new person.
    Sara laughed at the disbelief on my face. “Oh, come on,” she said. “I was on vacation.”
    I sobered. “Seriously. You are breathtaking.” How much of the change in my friend was acceptance of her new form, and how much was due to the love of a good monster? It filled me with joy to think Maurice’s quirky ways had mellowed her out.
    She put an arm around my shoulders in a half hug. “Thank you. I’m getting used to it.” She led me toward the kitchen and the sound of clinking bowls.
    The soup was delicious and warmed me as much as having my house full again of people I loved.
    Maurice took a bite of buttery, cheesy biscuit. “When’s Kam coming home?”
    Darius brushed a crumb from his shirt. “She texted a few minutes ago. We should see her before lunch tomorrow.”
    I scowled. “I told her not to drive straight through.”
    He shrugged. “Nobody tells Kam what to do any more than they tell you what to do.”
    He made an excellent point.
    Sara yawned and pushed her bowl away. “I’m going to crash soon. Fill us in on what’s going on.”
    Maurice scraped his chair as he rose. “That, I think, will require pie.”
    I sighed. Yeah. So good to have them home.

Chapter Three
    No telling how fast Kam had to have driven to get home as quickly as she did, but she arrived hours before lunch the next day. She jumped out of her pickup truck in a pair of white go-go boots, an orange and pink mini dress, and with a long white scarf tied in her dark hair.
    Kam had brought the ‘60s home with her.
    The clothing and the exuberant attitude were a far cry from the lonely vagrant I’d pictured—stopping in every town, picking up work where she could, maybe helping someone in need before her secret was discovered and she had to move on, accompanied by sad walking-away music.
    I shook my head. No wait. That was
The Incredible Hulk
.
    Kam had been out chasing escaped souls for freelance pay. She’d taken the removal of one of her three magic gems better than I had, apparently. I had to stop thinking of her as having been maimed. She was doing fine, apparently.
    “Hello, foxy people!” She made the rounds, hugging each of us, pausing to admire Sara’s new look, then ended with me. She pressed her forehead against mine. “You okay?” She kept her voice low so no one else would hear. “Are you freaking out?”
    I smiled and shook my head. “I’m okay. We knew he’d show up eventually. I was ready.”
    “So, are we keeping you at home again, out of