The Summoning Read Online Free PDF Page B

hills. They aren’t very high, but they go on quite a ways, and if you’re willing to cross a road, they go on even farther. There are no trees to speak of, and the traffic noise never ends, but there is space, and many trails, the scent of grass and the web of the creatures’ lives that live there, and at night there are almost never any people. I took off for the hills when the moon was high, trying to run my way back to peace of mind, trying to run from thoughts I thought I’d escaped months ago, when I left home, the home of my mother, and her new mate.
    Up in the hills the air was cool and almost fresh. The California grasses and herbs were sweet and damp from the dewfall. I climbed the hill beyond where the Wiccans had had their working—nothing there tonight, except the wards that whispered, Go away, there’s nothing here, you don’t want to be here. On the next rise I stood with my back to the city lights, looking out into the darkness of the hills beyond. Down the rise where the park abutted the houses, a family of raccoons made a ruckus in the trash cans. A snake had passed here not long before. Four deer stood in the hollow below, not moving, not making a sound, waiting for me to go.
    My coyote cousins began to sing across the way. I sat down to listen to them.
    Everything changes. The days turn. The moon rises and falls. My dad was gone, and I didn’t know what happened to him.
    I wore a new name now, though I was not yet used to it. My family name is Hunter. I left my puppy name, the one my brothers called me, the one I was called at school, behind me when I went away. My dad called me Amber. I use it these days, because I like to hear the word.
    I had two brothers of my own. When I was fourteen, Carl, my older brother, went with my mom and my dad to the Gathering. My younger brother Luke and I, not being of age, stayed home with my Aunt Dora. When my mom came home, she brought Ray with her. Her new husband. My dad and Carl never returned. Ray moved in to my mom and dad’s room. My dad’s stuff was packed in boxes, down to the coffee cup he always used, and sent away. Carl’s room was cleared out, and my four hated stepbrothers moved in. Life at home was insupportable from that point on.
    My mom wouldn’t talk about it. She wouldn’t answer questions. She said, when I was older I would understand. Well, I was older, and I did not understand. How could she let that bastard, that monster, into her house, in the place of my dad? And why wouldn’t she tell me what had happened to Dad and to Carl?
    No one I knew would talk to me. They were all afraid of Ray. I didn’t blame them. I was afraid of Ray, too.
    All right, it pissed me off that I wasn’t the darling of the house anymore. I’d always been my dad’s favorite. I knew it, everyone knew it, but my brothers were sweet about it. I was their favorite too. I knew what it meant, among my family, to be my mother’s daughter, the Daughter of the Moon Wolf. When the clods invaded, they tried to make me into their servant.
    They’d done me a favor in a way, I tried to tell myself once more. Because of them, I’d learned to fight. I’d grown into my powers early, and made them sorry. I’d had to fight for Luke as well as myself, which gave me twice as much to do. I’d put my oldest stepbrother in the hospital the last time he bothered me. Unfortunately, that brought me the attentions of his dad.
    How could my mother put up with someone like that? That was the question that made my fury rage. But what that did was cover my little-girl question, which was, how could she let him do that to me?
    I learned not to be beaten down by him. I learned how to fight back. He was too strong for me, but his sons were not. The next time he bothered me, I went after his youngest boy. He only did it one more time before he got the message.
    They knew I’d take off as soon as I came of age. So I took off even earlier, as soon as I possibly could, so they couldn’t