Aleera

"Anna my love, it is your blood that will keep me beautiful, what do you think of that?"

- Aleera's last words before Anna Valerious kills her.

Aleera is the secondary antagonist of the 2004 film Van Helsing. She was one of Dracula's Brides.

She was portrayed by Elena Anaya, who later played Doctor Poison.

History
Aleera, the youngest of the three Brides, accompanied Count Dracula to the windmill in 1887 in an attempt to rescue Frankenstein's Monster from an angry mob. As the windmill burned and collapsed, she and the other Brides cried in horror and despair as their dream of bringing Verona's Vampire offspring to life had failed.

Aleera then attacked the village at Transylvania with the other Brides. Aleera caught Anna in the air and taunted her by asking her if she liked to fly. Aleera then went after Anna, cornered her, threw her out of the cottage, and chased after her again. Aleera and another Bride, Verona, subdued Anna and Aleera pleaded for first bite, but Verona warded her off so she could eat. When Marishka was killed by Van Helsing, Aleera and Verona felt her death and howled as they both spun around fast and transformed into their Bat Creature forms, flew away, and cried out Marishka's name.

They later mourned Marishka's death at Castle Dracula and were hurt when Dracula told them that he would get a new Bride, and asked how little that he thought of them. They continued to serve him out of fear and hypnosis nonetheless.

When the baby vampires attacked the village, Aleera and Verona watched the scene in glee and awe. Dracula then told his Brides to teach the children how to feed and tossed them over the balcony. Both screamed with excitement as they transformed into their Bat Creature forms to fly with their children to feed, but the shrieks turned to that of horror as their children started to explode before they left the scene. They mourned their deaths just like Marishka's.

Aleera then attacked Van Helsing's carriage to capture and save Frankenstein's Monster with Verona. As the carriage started to fall from the broken bridge, Aleera and Verona flew toward the canyon and grabbed onto the carriage. Aleera then told Verona to save the creature and flew away leaving her to the task, but Verona saw the carriage was empty and realized too late that it was a trap, and was killed by stakes while trying to escape. The following morning, Aleera ambushed and kidnapped Anna, flying away while shrieking with delight. Later, Aleera confronted Van Helsing as he was about to pull out a pistol, and she told him of the trouble that he was causing her Master. Aleera told Van Helsing and Carl that her Master (Dracula) had demanded an ultimatum: the Monster for the Princess. When Van Helsing requested for a public place for the trade, Aleera said that the next night was All Hallow's Eve and told Van Helsing that her Master was throwing a wonderful masquerade ball in Budapest and then flew away cackling.

After Van Helsing attacked Dracula's Castle, Aleera taunted Anna just before having her face sprayed with a vial of viscus material, temporarily staggering her. As Anna tried to leave with Carl to save Van Helsing, Aleera pulled Anna back, telling her that she couldn't leave until she said so and that it would be when she's dead. The two then proceeded to fight. Aleera then blew out Anna's torch and spun around in a blurring hurricane of wind to extinguish every light in the room, to intimidate and slowly kill Anna. Before Aleera could kill Anna, Frankenstein's Monster attacked her, which gave Anna time to escape. Aleera was grabbed by her legs and hurled against the wall by the monster, momentarily stunning her, But Aleera soon recovered, circumventing the monster and going after Anna. Relentless Aleera struck Anna out from mid air against a rooftop wall railing, moving in for the kill and savouring the moment. Aleera taunted Anna, by telling her that her blood would keep her beautiful. Suddenly, Carl threw Anna a stake from afar, catching it and promptly stabbing Aleera in the chest, leading a shocked, dismayed and screaching Aleera to boil, ooze and deform until she explodes into acidic bile, sending the stake flying towards Carl and almost hitting him. Aleera, the last of Dracula's Brides, was killed.

Appearance
Aleera has the appearance of a young beautiful woman with auburn-copper hair. She has a pink vampire bride wedding dress with short sleeves and an opening in the chest revealing her cleavage. The design has an opening midrift with bedazzle body art adorning the middle of her stomach, her white-pink dress is long and flowing.

In her vampire bat form she has notable changes. Instead of having her glowing, luminescent skin, she has ashen white skin with sunken eyes and bluish lips (a look of death). She has giant bat wings for flying, her feet and hands bare talons, with extra joints in her legs and more muscle definition, she still maintains her hair like the other brides in this transformation. Like the other brides, she has eyes that can glow at will and her eyes glow in a fluorescent lavendar hue.

Abilities


Aleera has a healing ability so any major injuries can be healed quickly such as when anna burns her face. She also can morph from bride form to bat or vice versa at will. Her strength and skill is beyond that of any normal vampire, a trait afforded to few as bride to Dracula himself. Her supernatural strength is demonstrated when she frequently ragdolls anna with her bare hands.

She is able to fly at fast speeds, to attack long range or quickly dodge any oncoming projectiles.

Trivia

 * Aleera said that she knew what lurked in Anna's lasting heart, to which the latter replied: "I hope you have a heart Aleera, because one day I'm going to drive a stake through it!" That was somehow funny and prophetic, because Anna killed Aleera by driving a stake into her heart.
 * Aleera appeared to be able to split her jaw into three mandibles. It was unknown if that was a trait in all Vampires, or if Aleera possessed that ability alone. She could also see in the dark and could see a human's beating heart and flowing blood. It could be assumed that all Vampires carried that trait.
 * Aleera bore an intricate hairstyle with a top knot in her first major appearance, but in appearances after Marishka's death, her hair was let down in a more simplistic style, like that of Marishka - possibly her way of mourning her fellow bride.

Aleera