Undead Much by Stacey Jay Page A

family members who, as you know, can’t be called upon to testify against her in a felony case.”
      “Felony?” It felt like all the air had been sucked from my lungs.
      I’d bent the rules a few times, sure, but what made Kitty and her team think I’d committed a felony? A felony was like… using black magic to murder someone or something horrible! Even the time SA thought I’d accidentally summoned a bunch of RC clones, no one had said anything about mediators or felonies.
      An accident! Maybe this was something I’d done by accident. I still didn’t have total control over my power, so it was possible.
      “What if I did something without knowing I did it?” I asked, hurrying on before Mom could tell me to shut up again. “Like the time they thought I made those clones?”
      “Not this time.” Kitty’s tone allowed no room for argument.
      “We’re finished in her room.” Barker, another of my Enforcer trainers, appeared in the entrance to the kitchen.
      He was so tall his head nearly hit the top of the doorframe and so wide he had to stand at an angle to keep his shoulders from hitting the sides. The dude was big enough to be flat-out scary and usually had a scowl on his face that completed the “fear me” look, but now he just looked sad. And disappointed.
      My Sprite gurgled sickly in my stomach as I realized I was the one who had put that look on his face. Or whatever he thought I’d done. The man could barely look at me, which made me sad. And angry.
      What had I ever done to make him and Kitty so ready to believe I’d raised those weird zombies? There had never been a Settler convicted of using black magic, so why were they assuming I was going to be the first? I might not have been the most eager little pupil, but I’d done my best to make them proud. I’d trained my ass off and studied until my brain felt like it was going to leak out of my ears, yet still, here we were.
      It had to be my stupid super-Settler power getting me in trouble again. That was the only explanation that made sense. I was a suspect because I was capable of doing things the average Settler couldn’t, not because I’d actually done anything.
      “Did you find anything?” Kitty asked.
      “No. It was clean.” Barker didn’t sound as happy about that as he should have. He probably thought I had stashed the evidence of my evil somewhere else. The jerk.
      “Thanks.” Kitty stood up and turned to face my mom and Elder Thomas, who had come to stand beside her sometime during the interrogation. “Please understand that we all care very much about Megan and your family. But as it stands-”
      “As it stands, Megan is innocent. She didn’t raise those zombies.”
      “Maybe not. We’ll have to wait for all the lab work to come back to be sure,” Elder Thomas said. “But we both know she could have. Don’t we, Jennifer?”
      It was exactly the thought I’d had a second ago, but for some reason it made my mom suck in a shocked breath, then dart a quick look in my direction before turning back to Elder Thomas. Like it was news I was weird? We’d known this for a while now. “That’s… I thought we… This is crazy, Megan is innocent.”
      “Megan may be innocent, but mistakes have been made-”
      “Are you suggesting… I can’t…” Mom turned her back on me and dropped her voice to a whisper. “You know what? I’m not having this conversation. No one in this house did anything wrong, and I refuse to call that decision a mistake.”
      “I think we both know that-”
      “Get out.” Mom pointed a trembling finger at the door. The words were soft but infused with more rage than I’d ever heard in my mother’s voice.
      “We’ll be in touch.” Elder Thomas headed toward the door, followed by a rather embarrassed-looking Kitty and a still sad-clown-faced Barker. The front door slammed seconds later and our house was suddenly disturbingly