Mary Read was born in Devon County, England, in the late 17th century. She had a harsh childhood. Her father died before she was born and her half-brother Mark passed away soon afterward. Mary's paternal grandmother supported Mary and her mother, only because she thought that her grandson Mark was still alive. To keep death of Mary's brother a secret from his grandmother, Mary was raised as a boy, pretending to be her older brother.

When Mary was about thirteen years old, her grandmother died. Mary, still dressed as boy and with boyish habits, had to find a job. She became a footboy to wealthy French woman, who lived in London. Unsatisfied with her current position, she ran off and boarded a man-o-war. A few years passed and she became bored again. This time she joined army, where she met Tom Barrett. Tom and Mary were immediately drawn to one another, although Tom did not realize Mary’s true gender at first. Mary became protective of Tom in their friendship and, as she was the fiercer of the two, often stepped in when it looked like Tom was in danger. In one particular incident, Tom angered a fellow soldier who challenged him to a duel. Knowing that Tom could not possibly win, Mary went out of her way to annoy the same soldier who also challenged her to a duel. She set it for three hours before he was to fight Tom and, when the time came, she shot and killed the soldier, preventing Tom from his duel.

Eventually, Mary realized that she was in love with Tom. She confessed her secret to him and, although initially a bit appalled, Tom soon realized that he loved Mary. They left army and got married, using their army pension to open an inn called Three Horseshoes near Castle Breda. For the first time in her life, Mary lived as a woman.

Life took an interesting turn shortly after the honeymoon. One night, as Mary and Tom were in bed, the window to their bedroom was shattered and a group of men came rushing inside. Although Tom and Mary both put up a fight, the men managed to carry Tom off into the night. One man stayed behind, to try and kill Mary, but she defended herself with the broken leg of a chair and managed to impale him through the heart. This was when Mary first learned of the existence of vampires.

With a signet ring, stolen from the corpse of her attacker, Mary dedicated the next three years of her life, from 1716-1719 learning anything she could about vampires. Hoping to find Tom again, she looked for signs of their existence and saw possible evidence of one in the New World.

Dressing as a man once again, she was boarded a Dutch ship that sailed to the Caribbean. On the way, Mary's ship was attacked and captured by the pirate, Calico Jack Rackham, who took all English captured sailors and offered a choice between death or joining his crew. Mary readily chose the option of becoming a pirate. On Rackham's ship, she met Anne Bonny, Rackham’s mistress. Based on all of her new knowledge about vampires, Mary realized that Anne was, in fact, a vampire. Anxious to learn more about the fate that had befallen Tom, Mary made it a point of befriending Anne.

Over the next year, Mary’s friendship with Anne took an interesting turn. It wasn’t long before Anne realized that Mary was, in fact, a woman. Eventually, Anne admitted that she also knew Mary was using her to learn about vampires, but that after seeing the way she fought many sea battles in the name of the pirates, she considered Mary worthy of joining the Valkyrien Amazons, an order of vampires from days gone by:

In the glory days of the Camarilla, an elite band of female vampire warriors protected the streets of Rome. These were the Valkyrien Amazons. Many claimed that they were the immortal descendents of the Valkyries of Norse mythology or the Amazons of Greek mythology, but no one is alive today who can confirm or deny it for certain. With the fall of the Camarilla, these warriors remained together, becoming part of, if not the, founding entity of the Circle of the Crone. While the covenant gathered many followers in time, the Valkyrien Amazons kept mostly to themselves, continuing to perform the duties they had upheld in the Camarilla, as protectors of the night.

As the great divide between the Circle of the Crone and the Lancea Sanctum formed, a splinter group of the Sanctified sought to eradicate the Valkyrien Amazons. This group, which became known as the Centurions, was its polar opposite. It consisted entirely of men and, while the Valkyrien Amazons sought to maintain peace and order, the Centurions had no regard for life, property, or even the Masquerade.

For centuries, these two factions fought until, in time, they were spread over so much of the land that for many, they became nothing more than myth. Both were still alive and kicking however. The Valkyrien Amazons adopted a new set of policies in order to protect itself and increase its ranks without drawing too much attention. The rules were simple:
1. Selection: Members of the Valkyrien Amazons would be allowed to Embrace one woman of their choice during each of their tours of duty, if they so choose. These women would have to be mortals who had already proven themselves on the battlefield. Of course, they also would have to be female and approved by the leaders of the Valkyrien Amazons as well as the Princes in the domain. All Embraces would have to be voluntary on the part of the childr.
2. Branding: All members of the Valkyrien Amazons were given an identifying tattoo of Vs and As before the Embrace (http://silverjester.deviantart.com/art/The-Valkyrien-Amazons-166486674).
3. Tour of Duty: Women in the Valkyrien Amazons would serve tours of duty, twenty five years in length, to be followed by twenty five years of leisure, in which to enrich their minds and bodies.

Above all else, however, the Valkyrien Amazons were charged with the task of keeping the Centurions at bay.

Anne speculated, based on the signet that Mary showed her, that Tom was kidnapped by Centurions. She offered Mary the option to be Embraced, but before Mary could make a decision, the mortal world got in the way. Mary's pirate carrier ended, on October 1720. The ship was captured, by Captain Jonathan Rogers in desperate battle. In Port Royal, the crew stood trial. Rackam and his crew were found guilty of piracy, but Mary and Anne were spared because Anne used her powers to convince Rogers that they were both with child.

Life in prison was extremely difficult for the women. Mary put forth massive amounts of effort to protect Anne and hide her vampiric condition during the day. This, unfortunately, forced her into a situation where she frequently had to interact with Jonathan Rogers, who slowly became enamored with both of the women. He put himself personally in charge of their confinement and, when the order was given to brand the women with a mark of piracy, he came into Mary’s cell at dusk. Rogers was determined to have his way with Mary, but Anne woke from her sleep just before Rogers could overpower her. In an attempt to cover up his intentions, Rogers instead pressed the branding iron to Mary’s thigh, claiming that he was only rustling her dress to do so. Furiously, Anne unleashed her vampire abilities on Rogers, beating him within an inch of his life.

With Rogers out of the way, Anne broke Mary and Rackham out of prison. The three of them escaped to a nearby island, where they remained for several weeks before returning to the American mainland. There, Mary agreed to the Embrace and, after being tattooed with the symbol of the Valkyrien Amazons, she became a vampire. Anne also sired Jack. Her actions were out of love and Mary could not find fault in this. She was the sole witness at their wedding a short while later.
From 1721 to 1725, the trio traveled along the colonies. It was during these years that Mary was encouraged, under the guidance of the Valkyrien Amazons, to experiment and experience different lifestyles in order to decide how she best wanted to serve the order. Mary quickly realized that she enjoyed the high life. What she did not enjoy, however, was the way she was treated as a woman of society. Therefore, she decided that she wanted to serve the order best by moving in respected circles, in a man’s profession. Eventually, she settled on becoming a doctor.

From 1725 to 1750, Mary was assigned to her first active duty, serving in New York. During that time, her primary responsibilities including learning about medicine and how a vampire could form useful networks within the medical community, particularly when it came to hiding evidence of vampire attacks and obtaining blood when necessary.

Mary became inactive for the first time from 1750 to 1775. In taking ownership of her new life, she decided to change her name from Mary Read to Dr. Mina Barrett. The timing on this could not have been more fortuitous, as she learned when she attended a British ball in North Carolina. Among the guests, she spotted Jonathan Rogers, looking surprisingly fit for a man of his age. She observed him throughout the night, careful not to catch his attention. Close to dawn, she followed him back to an estate where she saw him feed off of a vampire who he was keeping in chains. Refreshed from the vitae, he began to torture and interrogate this vampire. His questions led Mina to believe that Rogers had gone insane, obsessed with finding Anne again.

In 1775, Mina began her second tour of duty, lasting until 1800. During this time, much of her work was made easier in light of the American Revolution.

Beginning in 1800, Mina began her second period of inactivity, lasting until 1825. Throughout the twenty five years, Mina continually found her thoughts, and dreams, turning back toward Tom. Owing to this odd sentimentality, Mina decided to return to England, to their old haunts. Of course, she never found Tom during her time in the Old World, but she did, however, locate one of the Centurions who she remembered from the night of the kidnapping. Seized with rage, Mina diablerized him, making off, not only with his soul, but with vast amounts of his fortune.

From 1850 to 1875, Mina began a third tour of duty. During this time, she was assigned by the Amazons to serve the North during the Civil War. Her primary responsibility was to cover up any traces of vampire involvement in the war. In 1861, deep in the heart of North Carolina, she battled with a man named Wayne Bruce. The two of them attempted to kill each other and, realizing they were both Kindred, retreated from the battlefield to make introductions. They took an unusual liking to each other, Mina considering him to have the heart of an Amazon. For the remainder of Mina’s tour of duty, she often teamed up with Wayne to fight crimes. Among their exploits, they encountered Jonathan Rogers, now going under the alias of "Mad Hatter." In his obsessive hunt for Anne, Rogers had created a giant, mechanical spider and was ravaging the countryside near where he believed she was hiding.

Mina was inactive again from 1875 to 1900. During this period, she met up with Anne and Jack, who were living on a large estate in South Carolina that once belonged to Anne’s father. There, they had decided to settle down for twenty five years and attempt to raise a normal family. To that end, they adopted a human child, a girl they named Jacqueline, and raised her as their own. Mina became Jacqueline’s favorite aunt. As Jacqueline grew, however, she understood more and more that her family was not like other families. By the age of twenty, she was absolutely determined to become a Valkyrien Amazon, like her mother and Aunt Mina. When Anne absolutely refused to this, Jacqueline ran away from home, determined to find a way into the order on her own. Mina spent the remainder of her inactive period searching for Jacqueline, at an anxious Anne’s behest, but she was unable to locate the girl and was soon forced to return to her work.

From 1900 to 1925, Mina returned for another tour of duty. This time, she was assigned to the city of Chicago, where the Valkyrien Amazons believed that the head of the Italian mafia was involved with the Centurions. She established herself as a doctor at Mercy Hospital and Medical center. Also, she met up with her old friend, Wayne Bruce, and together, the two of the launched an intense investigation into the suspect and the Italian mafia. After twenty five years of digging, however, Mina determined that he was not, in fact, connected with the Centurions at all. The visit was not a total waste, however, as Mina became well established at the hospital and befriended Dr. Tristan Quinn.

Mina’s period of inactivity started out normally enough in 1925. She immediately checked in with Anne and learned that Jacqueline had not been heard from. She started to take up the search again. In 1931, Mina was recalled to duty unexpectedly and told to report to Chicago, to handle a situation that she was most suited to deal with. When she asked for details, the Valkyrien Amazons refused to give her any specifics and told her that she was on a “need to know” basis for the time being. Befuddled, Mina made her way to Chicago.