In the Rose Garden, the eccentric beekeeper Professor Spinella hovered timidly to one side. Beside him stood a middle-aged woman who was less than five foot seven but had a presence at least six and a half feet tall.
Although Nick had already seen this Melissa Wickoft on video, he still had to marvel when he met her in person. She really did have the bearing of someone in command-though certainly not the sort of "queen" who wore skintight black latex and carried a whip.
According to what he had learned from the Bear Wesen lawyer, relationships among Bee Wesen were much like those among bees. A family was equivalent to a hive, with only one female responsible for ruling all its Bee Wesen.
Although the Bee Wesen under the queen had independent personalities, almost all of them obeyed her orders unconditionally. In return, the queen was obliged to look after every member of the family.
These Bee Wesen were also quite good at keeping up with the times. To avoid standing out too much in modern society, they had long since stopped openly living together as one large extended family.
On the surface, they all had lives of their own, and even formed ordinary families with one another or with other humans.
In reality, however, these Bee Wesen maintained close contact through the internet. Their younger members in particular were mostly geeks with considerable technical skills, and some had even become programmers.
Bee Wesen families also stayed in touch with one another. If anything happened to a queen, her subordinates would seek refuge with another family and become its members.
That was precisely why organizing two "flash mobs" had been a trivial matter for them.
"Are you the Grimm?" The moment the Queen Bee saw Nick, she revealed her