Kissing Monsters (Kissing Monsters 1)

By Lynn Robin

“When you kiss a monster, you turn them into angels.
If you’d kiss the Collector, he would turn you into a monster.
So... what happens if you would kiss a human?”

Her name is Kiss.

She travels the world to find monsters to kiss and turn them into angels—for the world has too many monsters and too few angels, she believes; too many shadows and too few stars in the sky.

But then she crosses paths with Zane, a young human man, a lost and lonely cello player, who tells her about the Collector—a monster who would turn her into a demon if she’d kiss him.

The Collector wants and claims everything that catches his attention.
And so, he starts hunting for Kiss.

Will she run? Will she stay and fight?
Or could Zane, a mere human, save her instead?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lynn Robin
• Release date: Feb 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463950753

Lynn Robin

Lynn Robin (1992) is an author of Paranormal Romance novels.Born and raised in the historical city of Leiden in the Netherlands, she has felt the urge to write stories ever since she was little— preferably ones with ghosts and other spooky things (probably because her parents let her watch Stephen King film adaptions when she was nine).Next to that, she likes to add a healthy dose of romance to her books; star-crossed lovers and forbidden romances, preferably about monsters hiding in the bodies of young men, and girls blessed with angelic powers—or at least humans touched by magical abilities.She made her debut in 2017 with her Dutch series entitled the Schimmenwereld Serie (the Phantom World series), containing six books about ghosts, angels, demons, music, dance, art, and—of course—love. She won the Best Book of 2018 award with the fourth installment, Schimmendroom (Phantom Dream), chosen by the jury of The Dutch Indie Awards.In 2020 she debuted internationally in English with the highly romantic Kissing Monsters series which concluded with 8 volumes in 2021. Her latest release is The Sea of Her, a still ongoing paranormal romance series in a tropical setting about the Weeper of Pearls, a Wild Stranger from the Sea and a long-lost King of the Ocean.Besides being passionate about writing, she’s also a rather dedicated running/fitness/yoga/martial arts enthusiast, and likes to spend time with her family, play videogames, or freak herself out watching documentaries about haunted houses (for research, she claims).

Book preview

KISSING MONSTERS

Kissing Monsters — Book One

Lynn Robin

KISSING MONSTERS

Kissing Monsters — Book One

Copyright (c) 2020 Lynnette Robin Slijkhuis

Cover and interior design: (c) 2020 Kimberly Jolanda

ISBN: 9780463950753

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the author.

www.lynnrobin.com

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Table of Contents

Kissing Monsters

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Epilogue

Sneak Peeks

Kissing Shadows

The Insomnia Files: Jodi Collins

INSOMNIA

About Lynn Robin

Connect with Lynn Robin

Books by Lynn Robin

PROLOGUE

a collector’s dream

A smile pulls at his lips as he gazes at his collection. It is an assembly of monsters: some small, some large, some even as tall as buildings.

All of them equally dreadful:

Empty eye sockets and orbs of ever-burning fire stare back at him, while claws scrape against the ground, tongues run over blood-stained teeth, and low growls and moans roll out of wicked throats.

He studies them, feeling a swell of pride. He himself is a monster as well, but of a different kind—in fact, there is only one of him, and although he isn’t a giant and lacks an insatiable thirst for blood, he might very well be the most dangerous one.

The other monsters know he is.

Every single one of them fears the Collector: the monster who collects other monsters. Sometimes he steals their eyes, sometimes their claws. And sometimes—and now is such a time—he simply uses them to do his bidding.

To the Collector, the world is like a board game, and these monsters are his pieces to move around at will. They will help him claim the one thing he wants the most.

He has waited for such a long time.

The Collector briefly closes his eyes, lowers his chin to his chest, and releases a sigh, slightly shuddering.

Now, he whispers to himself.

Looking up again, his gaze latches on to a monster with red-glistening teeth and milky eyes.

You, he says. Go hunt for her. You know who I want.

The monster jerks to attention, wavers for only a moment, then turns and hurries into the shadows. The Collector peers after it into the darkness, straightening his back in grim determination.

It is a kiss he wants.

And a kiss he will collect.

CHAPTER ONE

the cello player

Tucked away in a shadowy corner of a quiet bar, a girl swirls her red wine around in her glass, her eyes lit by the tealights floating around in the bowl of water on her table. There are flower petals in the water as well; they’re red, like her wine.

Red, like her hair; red, like her lips. Her skin is a deep, dark shade, darker even than the night sky, while her eyes are a bright, pale gray, a startling contrast that grabs the attention of both men and women—and monsters.

Her name is Kiss.

Some might have heard of her. Some haven’t.

She travels the world to find monsters to kiss and turn them into angels—for the world has too many monsters and too few angels, she believes; too many shadows and too few stars in the sky.

Kiss isn’t a mere girl, nor a monster, nor an angel, nor a human: no, she is a Gifted One, meant to change and heal the world.

The first monster she ever kissed was a serpentine creature lurking in the depths of the sea, who did nothing but devour all ocean life, slowly killing the Realm of Water. Kiss, at hearing the earth cry out in pain, dove into the sea and swam into its depths. There, she found the monster, who bared its teeth and opened its mouth, ready to swallow her whole—but she wrapped her arms around its neck and didn’t let go, not even after it dragged her through the entire ocean until it had tired itself out. As it sank to the ocean floor in exhaustion, Kiss caressed its face and pressed her lips to its forehead.

And with that, the serpent grew wings shining brighter than the sun; Kiss let go of the angel and watched it swim upwards, until it dove out of the water and flew into the sky, joining the other stars; the angels.

There have been many more monsters after that—one with giant paws and razor-sharp nails that tore down the rainforests; another one who threatened to melt the ice and turn the world into a dry realm of everlasting summer. There were smaller ones as well, monsters who preyed on humans to steal their health or dreams or wealth, and many other things one might find important.

Yet, despite Kiss’s efforts, the world is still full of monsters.

Some days, it makes her feel tired.

Today is such a day.

She lifts her glass to her lips and takes the smallest of sips while she casts her gaze around the bar, relishing the sour sweetness of the wine. The humans barely notice her; friends are laughing and sloshing their beer, some are alone and peer into their glasses, while couples are bent toward each other, quietly whispering, their faces painted by the golden glow of candlelight.

Kiss watches them the longest—those couples—spellbound as they inch closer to one another to let their lips meet, the sweetest of touches.

During her life she has shared many kisses. She has given love, and lots of it.

But she has never received.

Sighing, she averts her eyes and takes another sip of her wine. Her gaze travels to the stage at the back of the bar—there, in the shadows and dim light, sits a young man. He has a cello placed between his legs, the endpin resting on the floor to support the instrument’s weight. She studies his fingers, the knuckles bent, on the cello’s neck, while he caresses the strings with his bow.

A caress. Only that seems to be the right word for it. He plays softly, calmly. His gaze is cast down while he plays, his low octaves floating through the bar. No one watches him, however. Barely anyone even appears to hear his music.

The music sounds warm yet tragic. Peaceful yet lonely.

It stirs something in Kiss’s heart. She quickly looks the other way before she can take in any more details of the young man’s appearance; before he notices her watching him, and she attracts attention to herself. To her… otherworldliness all humans never fail to notice.

Kiss doesn’t belong anywhere. She lives in a realm between worlds; that of monsters and angels on one hand, and that of humans on the other. A Gifted One is meant to wander endlessly until their work is done. But when that time will come, Kiss doesn’t know.

It’s a lonely life, but not an empty one; she has a purpose, she has a task. She should be grateful for the reason why she’s born: to make the world a brighter place.