Free In Like a Lion by Karin Shah Page A

shifted to stand and realized something was very wrong. He wasn’t viewing her from the normal level of the bed. And his eyesight was sharp, far sharper than normal, with a far different field of vision.
    The dream had triggered his psychosis.
    Damn.
    Why was she staring at him that way? She clearly knew something was wrong, but how?
    He turned his head, burning with shame, feeling as he always did the bitter slap of his brain’s betrayal. “Get out.” His voice sounded distorted to his ears, as if it came from the depths of a bass drum.
    Anjali’s eyes widened further. “But . . .”
    “Get out!” He bared his teeth and charged the bars.
    Anjali jumped back, then ran, her low heels tapping a distress signal on the polished concrete floor.
    Anjali focused on calming her tripping heart, propping herself against the cool blocks lining the hallway, and letting the solid surface ground her. What the hell had just happened?
    Suddenly an idea occurred to her. She sniffed the dry, institutional air. Maybe someone was using some sort of gas on Jake to cause hallucinations and it was affecting her. But why?
    And what about the discs? She hadn’t hallucinated them. Ay, Bhagwan!
    Was it possible she had just seen a man turn into a dragon? Had heard a dragon speak to her?
    Confusion drove her past Anders without acknowledging him. She pressed frigid fingers to her overheated cheeks. She was a scientist. She believed in only what she saw, tasted, touched. How could she believe this impossible event?
    But you did see it, Anjali , she reminded herself. What had happened had no rational explanation, no grounding in the world she knew, but she had seen it.
    As a scientist she had to accept the evidence, no matter how improbable.
    There was simply no reason for anyone to spend so much money merely to fool one minor medical researcher. She had no pull, no connections. If there was something to be gained by such a hoax, she couldn’t decipher it.
    Jake was able to turn into a dragon.
    And if she was to believe the DVDs, a lion as well.
    Before she even knew where she was going, Anjali found herself in the elevator on the way to Mr. Kincaid’s office.
    Her feelings of menace earlier about her boss and the building were ridiculous. The man had never been anything but supportive and compassionate. He would explain everything. Plan firmly fixed in her mind, she rolled her shoulders. Mr. Kincaid must have a good reason for holding back this information.
    Anjali caught a glimpse of herself in the reflective metal of the elevator doors. Her hair fell in a tangled mass around her shoulders, only a small portion still braided, and her eyes were dark pits in her face.
    She combed her fingers through the thick strands and started to re-braid, but her hair was suddenly slippery and unmanageable. She gave up, settling for more finger combing.
    The aluminum doors slid open, leaving Anjali staring into the hall across from the lift. An antique mirror showed that Darcy was not at her desk. Anjali heaved a sigh. Good, she wouldn’t have to explain why she wanted to see her employer.
    Maybe the secretary knew about Jake’s otherworldly talent—maybe everybody did except her, but she just couldn’t see herself saying, “I want to ask Mr. Kincaid about the psychotic shapechanger downstairs.”
    But was Jake psychotic? The thought stopped Anjali in her tracks.
    He’d apparently killed. The names of his victims had been listed in her files. She had seen pictures from the scene of his foster father’s death.
    But his foster father had been abusing him, and her boss had obviously withheld crucial information from her. What else might he have hidden—or distorted?
    She found it suddenly difficult to get oxygen, and her heart stung at the violence of her emotions.
    Jake could be innocent.
    An innocent man imprisoned because of some agenda she could only guess at.
    A man who believed he was insane. She remembered the defeated grief in his eyes during