Kissing Scarlet (Kissing Monsters 3)

By Lynn Robin

Kiss’s thoughts scatter when Zane starts to move; he advances, his steps lithe and graceful as a predator’s.
Like the monster he used to be.
He still carries that strength, that rawness, with every step he takes toward her.
“Kiss,” he rasps, suddenly before her, her name a sweet hiss floating off his lips. He is close enough to touch—and before she can think, before she can think of backing away or coming closer instead, he’s already doing just that: touching her.
“Kiss,” he repeats roughly, his gaze bright with emotions she can feel swirling in her heart, a wild dance. “What are you doing here? How have you found me?”

After surrendering herself to the monster called Lock, all to save Zane’s life, Kiss is now forced to live in the demon’s lair as his obedient servant, bound to him by a ring made of bone.

Lock’s word is law. Her name is now Scarlet because he says it is.
And she is sent away to kill Zane and collect his blood,
because he tells her so.

Meanwhile, Zane is traveling the world in search for a human who could become the next Gifted One—a Monster Kisser, like him—which brings him to a sleepy seaside town, where he soon meets a young, blue-haired woman called Skylar.

Skylar has a secret to hide—yet when Zane starts to uncover it, he realizes that their paths crossing must have been a twist of fate.

Willing to do anything to free Kiss from Lock’s reign, Zane is ready to break every rule and make any promise;
even if it means the wrath of angels.

Even if it means giving Kiss his blood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lynn Robin
• Release date: Sep 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005204570

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 SCARLET

Kissing Monsters — Book Three

Lynn Robin

KISSING SCARLET

Kissing Monsters — Book Three

Copyright (c) 2020 Lynnette Robin Slijkhuis

Cover and interior design: (c) 2020 Kimberly Jolanda

ISBN: 9781005204570

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 Scarlet

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Epilogue

Coming Soon

Kissing Ghosts

About Lynn Robin

Connect with Lynn Robin

Books by Lynn Robin

PROLOGUE

to hear the unspoken

The sea is calling to her.

Freedom is.

Her pulse is a drumbeat in her throat, and her limbs are strangely stiff with fear but also the promise of escape as she shoulders her small backpack up higher, hurrying along the beach underneath the star-speckled sky.

The night is beautiful. Like a new beginning.

And a new beginning, well—that’s all she wants.

Her chin-length, electric-blue hair grazes her jaw as she twists back nervously to glance over her shoulder, to make sure she is alone. The beach is deserted, the wooden cabins in the distance motionless shapes, their windows dark. Everyone has gone to sleep.

She deliberately waited until he was also asleep, his breaths deep and even beside her as she lay awake in bed, counting her own heartbeats, waiting for the moment she could sneak out of the room and then out of the house, where she pulled her worn, leather backpack out from under the hibiscus bushes. She hid it there days ago, so he wouldn’t find it.

Quickening her pace, her footsteps softly crunching in the white sand, she briefly tightens her hold on the strap of her bag. She hardly took anything with her—some clothes, some money, a bottle of water and a little bit of food. She wouldn’t dare pack more; he’d have noticed it in a heartbeat.

She doesn’t care about her belongings, though; she wants to leave as much of this life behind as possible.

Glancing to the side, her gaze traces the dark mass that is the sea. She’s too far away to feel the water spray her ankles; she can merely see the waves lapping onto shore, reaching across the beach as if determined to touch the rental cabins; she can merely hear the constant, rhythmical rush, the soothing voice of the ocean disturbing the silence of the night.

Yes, it’s soothing now; but the sea is a deceptive creature.

She knows how savage it can be.

To her left, the town stretches out in the distance. There are pinpricks of light from homes where not everyone has fallen into slumber yet—happy homes, she assumes; not dark and violent like the one where she’s been living herself.

There is a twinge in her heart as she imagines herself leaving this town behind for good. She has always lived here. She’s never known anything else.

But she has to leave. She has to escape.

Drawing in a deep breath, she widens her strides, spurred on by a sudden, ominous feeling that prickles at the back of her neck, urging her to hurry, to run.

A sixth sense, perhaps.

You don’t have to be a monster or an angel or a Gifted One in order to see the invisible or to hear the unspoken.

This young woman is just a human.

And yet, a deeper part of her is not surprised when she hears it:

The heavy footfalls crunching in the sand behind her.

Her heart trips, panic squeezes the air from her lungs, and her body tells her to quicken her pace even though her mind is already wailing at her that it’s too late. Still, she leaps into a run, and as the wind shrieks against her ears, as her body feels weightless with every hurried step, as her bag bumps against her lower back, she almost starts to believe that she can still make it, that she can still—

A hand clamps down on her arm, yanking her back.

Her breath catches as her spine is pulled against a hard, solid chest while a muscular arm is wrapped around her. But not in a gentle, loving embrace; not even a passionate one.

This arm is a chain binding her in place to the one person she tried to outrun.

Where do you think you’re going, his low voice murmurs in her ear, his lips grazing her skin, Skylar?

Swallowing with effort, Skylar stares out at the sea.

It seems that freedom is still out of her reach.

It always is.

CHAPTER ONE

nothing but a whisper

His eyes closed and his head leaned back against his seat, Zane focuses on the train’s soft, steady rhythm as it speeds through the night.

He’s tired, but he can’t sleep. He has barely been able to since Kiss was taken by Lock.

Zane’s mouth tightens at the memory and his arms stiffen slightly, folded over his chest, his fingers curling into fists.

It has been a week since she surrendered herself.

All to save him.

To save him from Lock’s wrath and the monsters he had brought along with him, who were on the verge of tearing Zane into a thousand pieces. Yet, even after Kiss gave herself to Lock, the monsters still remained and nearly managed to turn him to shreds. If the angel Nyokah hadn’t stepped in, Zane wouldn’t even have been sitting here.

The angel saved his life. Perhaps he should feel guilty for betraying her.

After all, he’s made her a promise: he told her he would find a human who would be adequate enough to be turned into a Gifted One; or rather, a Monster Kisser, like Zane, who could help him defeat Lock and all the monsters he has gathered around him. Monsters that were once Zane’s possession, when he was still called the Collector. He supposes he can’t blame them for wanting revenge, for hating him, even—but he simply can’t let them get in his way of claiming back Kiss.

Which is why he needs to defeat them in order to get close to Lock, and the thing is, he can’t do that on his own. It is a task that requires a fellow Monster Kisser.

Nyokah, the angel, agreed for him to find such a soul… as long as he promised her that he would turn Kiss into an angel.

That’s where the guilt should come in—because Zane did make that promise.

But while he did, there wasn’t even a tiny fragment of him that meant it. He’s not planning on turning Kiss into an angel; he’s not planning on losing her, on giving her up.

No—what he wants is to claim Lock’s ring, so he can put it on Kiss’s finger himself and keep her with him. The ring will tame the beast inside of her, so she will no longer hunger for blood.

And that way, they can finally be together.

Zane slowly opens his eyes, their brilliant green color a murky shade in the dim lighting of the