"I'll kill her!" Mariah snarled, hurling a barrage of wild blows at the punching bag.
Some athletic souls had set up a workout area on the beach. Taking advantage of a warm, clear winter day on the Tartosan coast, Mariah had decided to work out her feelings of anger and betrayal the best way she knew how. If she was honest, the punching bag had been Liberty's idea. Mariah's original plan had involved a hangout for local toughs, alcohol and a brawl.
"I'll beat her down," Mariah grunted, "and drive a stake through her black heart!"
"Not with that stance you won't," Liberty said coolly.
"What?" Mariah shot back.
"Your stance is all wrong," Liberty pointed out. "You've got no real power and I can see those punches coming a mile off. You wouldn't last ten seconds against someone as old and canny as Ms. H."
Furious, Mariah roared and threw herself at the bag with all her might.
"Five seconds," Liberty corrected. "If you're going to do this, do it right. Listen..."
"OK, that was awesome," Mariah said afterward. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"Field operative training," Liberty said.
"I thought you told me once you were an analyst?" Mariah said. "That it just was desk job... not anything like the movies."
"I lied," Liberty smiled. "If you're going back in, you've got a lot to learn and no time. Not just fighting techniques. I've got some documents I want you to look through."
"Wait, are you... recruiting me?" Mariah grinned. "Like... for the Agency? You want me to be a spy?!"
"I want you to get as far away from Ms. H and Nick Alto as possible," Liberty said firmly. "I want you come back to Tartosa and live with Londyn and Danielle, where I can keep you out of harm's way... like I promised your father I would."
"Not going to happen," Mariah said just as firmly. "I'm not a little kid who needs to protected anymore."
"Don't I know it," Liberty said. "So, since you are going back anyway, I'm sending you back prepared."
"I'm going to be a spy!" Mariah grinned again.
"Intelligence asset," Liberty corrected. "Study hard, kid. Your life will literally depend on it."
Madonna, and I thought psych class was tough, Mariah thought later.
Liberty had sent her files and dossiers, most of them more than half blacked out. There were training manuals and textbooks, too. Not unlike her psych texts actually, Mariah realized, but with a distinctly different angle on things.
Then there was the book... old and musty, printed in block letters on rough paper... but what did she expect from a primer on vampires.
Seriously, Mariah thought, I'm studying vampires. Real vampires... drinking blood... mind control... When did my life get this weird? 
------------
Villa Romanza...
She remembered when an old noble family had built the first villa here. They held a grand ball when it was competed. She remembered the music, remembered nights spent dancing with young fops and with charming merchant captains just back from the spice lands. 
Smiling, she thought of how horrified those long-dead aristocrats would have been to know that an actress and a writer slept in the place where their ancestral home had stood for so long... 
... but then, entertainers were the new nobility.
There were those who said there was nothing quite so sweet as noble blood, graced with the power of the Old Families...
... but truth to tell, she had always preferred the blood of the passionate. The blood of artists, of lovers, of adventurers.
They were always the most satisfying to slake her Thirst. 
------------
"Danielle! Oh God, please!"
Londyn's cries had woken Mariah, sent her running to her mothers' room.
"Mama!" she sobbed.
This couldn't be. This couldn't happen! Not here. Not to her!
Somehow, through the sobs and cries, through the roaring in her head, Mariah heard the quiet click of the front gate.
She didn't think, didn't hesitate. She just ran down the stairs and out, into the dark.
The woman stood just outside the gate, moonlight shining off her fine clothes, her jewels, her cold, pale skin.
"Well, what have we here," the vampire whispered. "Rash of you to follow... and all alone."
Mariah's answer was an incoherent roar of rage as she hurled herself at the monster. Screaming, fists flying, she was determined to make the creature pay for what it had done...
"Foolish child," the vampire hissed, lifting Mariah, beaten and battered, high above the paving stones. "So full of rage and pain. So full of passion... but you will need more than passion to defeat us."
"I make you a gift of your life," the White Lady sighed, dropping Mariah. "You're not ready to face us. If you would challenge the Children of Night again, prepare yourself, child."
------------
Waking to the dim dawn light, bruised, sore and heart-sick, Mariah drew a deep breath.
I wasn't ready, she thought, but I will be. Giuro su Dio, I'll train and I'll study. Next time, I will be ready.
"Mama!, Mariah sobbed. "Grazie a Dio, you're alright!"
"I'm fine, honey," Danielle said. "Really... first Londyn rushing me to the ER in my nightgown, now this. I'm fine."
"We were so worried," Mariah said.
"I know but really, everything is alright," Danielle said. "I know for you two to be so scared, I must have fallen so badly. I don't even remember it... but the doctor says I'm fine. Anemic, is all. It's nothing to worry about."
"No, mama," Mariah whispered later as she hung braids of garlic by the door. "Nothing to worry about... I'll be prepared next time."
