Holy Crap, I Wrote a Book, Now What? Writing Tips and Advice: Excerpt from "The Third Throne: Angel of Death", by Tabitha Barret

I'm excited to announce that my third book in the Third Throne series, "Angel of Vengeance" is almost finished! To celebrate, I wanted to release an excerpt from my second book "The Third Throne: Angel of Death" to introduce the series to new lovers of steamy Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy.

"The Third Throne: Angel of Death" is where Anjali's journey beings to find her ten angels who are meant to tempt the mortals and gage how far they have fallen into sin. She decides to search for Alazar, the Angel of Death, in Romania. Unfortunately, a group of paranormal investigators have come to explore the Romanian castle that Alazar is hiding in. Anjali befriends the mortals to keep them safe from her dangerous angel.

Complications arise when Alazar vows to kill her and attacks the mortals. Anjali must face another difficult challenge when she falls in love with one of the mortals, who has no idea who she really is. Can she save the Spirit Experts? Can she stay away from the handsome mortal?

In this excerpt, Alazar has tempted Pete, the co-founder of the Spirit Experts, and Derick's best friend, to kill himself. Anjali, using the mortal alias "Annie" desperately tries to save Pete from taking a swan dive off the tower. Can she save him from a horrific death?

**Please note that this text is copyrighted and may not to be reproduced in any way.

Anjali slowly moved closer to Pete realizing that Alazar was determined to win. “Your problem is with me. Let the boy go. He means nothing to you,” Anjali replied calmly. She tried not to let Alazar see her concern for Pete.

“Yes, but he means something to you. That’s good enough for me,” Alazar replied darkly.

“Why do you still want to hurt me?” she sneered, trying to understand where his head was at.

Rayan’s final words to Alazar came back to him as he watched her body become rigid and distant. “If you kill her, you will be damned forever. You will never know peace. Regret will be your only friend.” After experiencing peace, however briefly, by her side, it was entirely possible that Rayan’s prophecy was correct. Could he live without peace? He had thus far and he was still standing. As tempting as her power had been, he would rather live with regret and be free from her tyranny.

“I would rather live out my final days cold and alone, than have to beg for your forgiveness to receive one moment of compassion. I refuse to give myself to you. You willingly went to Lucifer to ease his pain, yet you rebuff me when I need you,” Alazar snapped.

“You just tried to kill me,” she replied bluntly.

“Lucifer did kill you, yet I have no doubt that forgave him,” Alazar hissed. With that, Alazar waved his hand like a magician performing a slight of hand trick, and bowed.

Anjali watched Pete climb up the window ledge with renewed purpose.

“No,” she whispered.

"Good luck picking up the pieces, Destroyer,” Alazar nodded to her and disappeared from the room.

Pete mindlessly pulled himself up onto the windowsill. “I have to. I have to tell them,” he muttered as he lumbered to the opening.

Anjali quickly became Annie and lunged forward to grab Pete. He was about to step over the edge when she snagged the back of his jacket and kept him from moving.

“Pete, no, you have to stop. You can’t end your life like this,” she yelled, snatching his arm and tugging at him.

She was about to forcefully pull him back from the ledge when she heard Derick’s voice over the walkie-talkie. She had ignored it while dealing with Alazar, but now his voice was louder. She swore when she realized Derick was in the hallway.

“Derick, help me,” she had little choice but to ask for his help. She wasn’t sure if she could break Alazar’s hold on him once she got Pete off the ledge. Having felt his temptation first hand, she knew how alluring it was.

Pete was agitated and didn’t want to be pulled away from his objective. He kicked wildly at Annie, forcing her to let go of him.

“I have to do this. They need to know,” Pete growled. His eyes were vacant.

Derick came rushing into the room as Annie grabbed Pete around the hips and pulled him from the window. Pete tumbled to the ground but immediately jumped to his feet. He retaliated by swinging his forearm into Annie’s face. She recoiled, but leaped forward to throw her arms against his chest and hold him back. Derick’s flashlight blinded her and ruined her night vision, but she managed to keep Pete from climbing back up.

“What the hell is going on? Why weren’t you answering me? Did you feel that storm shake the castle?” Derick yelled. He was trying to figure out what was happening. He stopped when he saw Pete swinging wildly at Annie. Despite Annie being nearly a foot shorter than he was, she was actively blocking him.

“I found him talking nonsense, saying that he had to end his life, and that he needed to tell them. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but he’s trying to jump from the ledge. He smacked my walkie-talkie away. Now help me, or he’s going to jump to his death,” she shouted and ducked Pete’s flailing arms.

Pete spun to his right and sidestepped Annie’s outstretch hands. He jumped forward and threw himself onto the ledge, dangling halfway over the edge. He scrambled to his feet on the narrow windowsill and prepared for his swan dive.

Derick couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His best friend was pushing Annie away and trying to throw himself from the tower.

Derick quickly propped the flashlight on the opposite windowsill so that he could see them and ran to help Annie. He reached out for Pete’s arm, but he had to duck twice to avoid Pete’s elbow connecting with his face.

“Grab his arm and I’ll get his legs,” Annie said, frustrated that she couldn’t contain him. She calmed herself and focused, not wanting to break Pete by grabbing him too harshly. She hoped to get him out of this in one piece.

“Okay,” Derick grunted. Pete twisted from his grasp and nearly toppled over into the night air.

They simultaneously grabbed Pete and hefted him off the ledge and down onto his back. The second Pete hit the ground, he roared and threw them off. Scrambling to his feet, he tried to get back to the ledge.

“Pete, you have to stop! What’s wrong with you?” Derick yelled, terrified that his friend would make it to the ledge.

“This is the only way. I have to see them. They have to know!” Pete threw Derick aside and barreled toward the window.

Annie had to get through to Pete or he would never stop. She tackled him and threw him back to the ground. Her hands came down on his shoulders and she mounted his hips. Using her full strength, she controlled his thrashing with her arms and knees. He snarled at her, spraying her with spit. He was deranged. Jumping from the ledge and dying was now his sole purpose in this world. He no longer cared about finding spirits or filming a documentary. The compulsion had complete control of him and he would go through her to achieve his goal.

“Pete. Stop this. You aren’t thinking. You don’t want to do this. Think about everything you will lose if you do this. Death isn’t the answer. Think about your friends and family. They are more important than the answers you’re looking for,” she pleaded.

Derick knelt next to her, unsure of what to do. He watched helplessly as his friend lost his mind. He was snapping his teeth at Annie, trying to throw her off. Pete was crazed and nearly unrecognizable.

“I have to see them. I have to tell them. They need to know!” Pete ranted, not speaking to anyone in particular.

“Who is he talking about?” Annie yelled, trying to hold down his forearms.

“His parents. They’re dead,” Derick whispered. He finally understood Pete’s motivation to die.

“Pete, listen to me. You will never see your parents, not like this. There is nothing waiting for you on the other side, but pain and misery if you throw yourself from the window. Don’t destroy your life like this, please. You need to stay here with Derick, Josilyn, Morgan, Wedge, and all of your friends. You have to show the world what you have found out about spirits. You can’t do that if you become one of them!” Annie shouted, not wanting to see his face day after day in the Realms of Torture.

“I have to see them one last time!” Pete howled and shook his head violently in frustration.

Annie debated if she should take off her ring and use her power to reach out to Pete, but she had nearly killed him when she’d lost control earlier. She knew that she could wield death, but she didn’t know if she could bring someone back from the brink of suicide. The Destroyer was meant to kill, not to save people from death. It was a long shot, but she had to try.

“Derick, grab his head, and hold him still. I don’t want him hurting himself accidentally. He’s having some kind of episode or fit. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’m going to try to get through to him, but I don’t want him flailing around,” she winced when Pete kicked her back with his knees.

Derick was staring at Pete, trying to figure out why this was happening. Annie had to yell at him to snap him out of his trance. He blinked at her and nodded his head, comprehending her orders. Shuffling around to Pete’s head, he looked at Annie, one last time, hoping that she knew what she was doing. He was clueless about how to fix this, but was amazed that she had somehow taken control of the situation. He did as she asked and gripped Pete’s thrashing head, holding it so that Pete had no choice but to look up at the ceiling.

Annie leaned down and stared into Pete’s eyes, searching for some rational part that she could appeal to.

She let her power rise as close to the surface as the ring would allow. She spoke quietly, but authoritatively to make him understand that this was a threat, not a bedtime story. “Listen to me Pete, there is nothing but pain if you continue in this pursuit. You will feel like you’re flying as you fall from this height, until you hit the ground. Agony will explode throughout your entire body, and then you will feel cold and numb. After that comes the darkness, but it’s brief, ever so brief before you see the red glow of Hell. Everyone who kills themselves ends up in Hell. You will have the pleasure of experiencing every single torture that Hell has to offer. Suicides suffer more than anyone else, because they threw away their precious gift of life. God hates when people don’t live their lives to the fullest. You will be drowned, burned, beaten, starved, frozen, poisoned, and ripped to pieces for what seems like a thousand years, only to start the process again. The worst part is just when you think you can’t endure it anymore, Lucifer himself will tempt you to become his servant for eternity. That is something you don’t want. If you deny him, you go back into the realms until you have served your time. Whatever you need to tell your parents isn’t worth all of that,” her eyes bore into his, trying to make him understand the truth.

Will Pete survive? Will Derick blame Annie for this friend's sudden madness? Will he figure out who she really is based on what she said to Pete? Find out in "The Third Throne: Angel of Death", available for Kindle and in Paperback. If you have Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime, you can read the book for free!