The Haunted Air Read Online Free Page A

tomorrow.”
    That’s right, Jack remembered. Weekends are busy times for psychics.
    Junie led the way, followed by Karyn and Claude. Jack and Gia were just stepping over the threshold when a deep rumble filled the air, vibrating through their bones and shaking the house.
    â€œBomb!” Ifasen yelled. “Out! Everybody out!”
    Then another sound, a deafening, high-pitched, echoing scream—whether of pain, fear, or joy, Jack couldn’t say—filled the air.
    Didn’t sound like a bomb to Jack but he wasn’t taking any chances. He grabbed Gia and hauled her back across the porch and onto the lawn. Junie, Claude, and a shrieking Karyn scurried behind them.
    Ifasen was still at the front door, calling for someone named Charlie.
    Jack kept moving, pushing Gia ahead of him up the walk toward the car. Then he noticed something.
    He stopped. “Wait. Feel that?”
    Gia looked into his eyes, and then at her feet. “The ground …”
    â€œRight. It’s shaking.”
    â€œOh, my God!” Junie cried. “It’s an earthquake!”
    Just as suddenly as the tremors had started, they stopped.
    Jack looked around. Across the street, up and down the block, lights were on and people were spilling out into their yards, standing around in all states of dress and undress, some crying, some looking simply bewildered.
    Gia was staring at him. “Jack. An earthquake? In New York?”

    â€œDon’t you remember that one on the Upper East Side back in ‘01?”
    â€œI read about it, but I never felt it. I felt this . And I didn’t like it!”
    Neither had Jack. Maybe people in places like LA got used to something like this, but feeling the solid granite bedrock of good old New York City rolling and trembling under his feet … pretty damn unsettling.
    â€œWhat about that other sound? Like a scream? Did you hear that?”
    Gia nodded as she moved closer and clutched his arm. “Like a damned soul.”
    â€œProbably just some old nails tearing free in the quake.”
    â€œIf you say so. Sure sounded like a voice though.”
    Sure did, Jack thought. But he didn’t want to add to her unease.
    He looked around and saw Ifasen approaching with another, younger black man who bore a family resemblance. Both had similar builds and features, but instead of dreads the newcomer’s hair was cut in a neat fade. He wore black slacks, black sneakers, and a lightweight long-sleeve turtleneck, also black.
    â€œAn earthquake, Ifasen!” Junie said. “Can you believe it?”
    â€œI knew something was going to happen,” Ifasen said. “But impending seismic activity interferes with psychic transmission, so I couldn’t get a clear message.”
    Jack nodded approval. The guy ad-libbed well.
    Close up now, Jack noticed a horizontal scar along Ifasen’s left cheek; his milk chocolate skin was otherwise flawless except for the stipple of whiskers shadowing his jaw.
    â€œCan we go back inside now?” Junie said.
    Ifasen shook his head. “I don’t know …”
    â€œ Please? ”
    He sighed. “Very well. But only briefly.” He put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “This, by the way, is my brother Kehinde. He lives in Menelaus Manor with me.”

    Menelaus Manor? Jack thought, staring at the old house. This place has a name?
    Kehinde led the way back to the house. Jack hung back with Gia so he could talk to Ifasen.
    â€œWhy’d you think it was a bomb?”
    Ifasen blinked but his onyx eyes remained unreadable. “What gives you that idea?”
    â€œOh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that you yelled ‘Bomb!’ when the house started to shake.”
    â€œI’m not sure. Perhaps I was startled and it was the first thought that came to mind. The pre-seismic vibrations—”
    Jack held up a hand. “Yeah. You told us.”
    Jack sensed Ifasen was telling the