Countess Marya Zaleska

¨She gives you that weird feeling!¨

-Dracula's Daughter (1936).

History

Countess Marya Zaleska

Countess Zaleska is the daughter of the notorious Count Dracula, who became a vampire in the 16th century, and dominated his region of Transylvania with the tyranny of the Undead. Countess Zaleska was also made a vampire and forced to live a shadow existence, sleeping in a grave by day and sustaining herself on the blood of the living by night. In spite of this, she retained a strong desire to return to a human existence, and used her artistic training as a painter and a pianist to attempt to maintain her connection to the world of sunlight. Although she generally preferred female victims, she always kept a male servant around, promising the gift of eternal life to the most loyal. Her most recent servant was a ghoulish individual named Szandor.

Dracula's Daughter

When she heard the report that Dracula had died at the hands of Abraham van Helsing, Countess Zaleska flew at once to England, stole the body, and attempted to exorcise the evil spirit that had haunted it, hoping thus to gain her own freedom. Still the Hunger filled her each night and she was forced once again to hunt. She sought the help of modern psychiatry in the form of Dr. Garth (pronounced "Goth"), an old friend of van Helsing's with an open mind to the occult. Too late she learned that her own damnation was already complete, and that the only release could come with her own destruction.

Betrayed

She intends to transform Dr. Garth into a vampire to be her eternal companion, but before he can be transformed, Countess Zaleska is killed when Sandor shoots her through the heart with an arrow as revenge for her breaking her promise to make him immortal. She's the first member of the vampiric Dracula family who never resurrected.