Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

The heat poured down. It was like a scene from hell.
    Men shouted and beat the water, trying to scare the sharks away. Others yelled at their shipmates to be quiet, that they were just making matters worse. A raft in the distance lifted and tipped under the weight of men trying to climb up inside it. Daniel turned his back and closed his eyes.
    There was nothing he could do. The sharks would either get you or they wouldn't. A ship would show up or not. The sun and the waves and the salt in cracked skin and the blistering heat were constants. He tried to think back, to lose himself in memories. First of the little hotel room in Townsville and Jacob, flushed and startled in the aftermath of their first time ever. And when that got too painful, with not knowing where Jacob was now, he let his mind drift back further.
    He was just trying to remember if the first dog they'd had on the farm was the collie or the bull mastiff when something bumped up against him. He reached out irritably to push away the debris and touched fabric. Another corpse in another fucking life vest. He opened his eyes reluctantly to look, and found himself gazing at Jacob.
    His first thought was that he was hallucinating, or dreaming. His second was that Jacob was dead. But then Jacob muttered and flailed an arm out, striking Daniel on the chest, and he knew it was real.
    "Jacob, by all that's holy, Jacob, it is you." He pulled Jacob close and kissed him, oblivious to anyone watching or the pain of his cracked and bleeding lips, or anything except the feel of Jacob under his mouth. Jacob was in his arms, moving and alive, but he didn't kiss back. After a moment Daniel pulled away. "Jacob? Trip?"
    Jacob mumbled, softly and then stronger. "Daniel. I'm looking for Daniel. Have you seen Daniel?"
    "This is me," Daniel said firmly. He wrapped his arms around Jacob from behind, pulling the man in close, and laid his cheek against Jacob's. "Trip, it's me. I'm here."
    "Daniel?"
    "Yeah. It's me."
    "Are we rescued?"
    Daniel's heart lurched but he answered steadily, "No. We're not. Not yet."
    "No. 'Course not." Jacob sighed like a sleepy child.
    Daniel let go with one arm to pull the shirt off his head and drape it over both of them. Then he wrapped Jacob tightly in his arms again. He said in Jacob's ear, "How are you? Are you hurt?"
    "Not sure."
    He kept his voice calm. "Not sure where?"
    "My back. Left leg. I think it was the left. Big gash there, was bleeding for a bit, I think. Doesn't hurt much now. Can't feel it now."
    "You'll be okay." Daniel tried to slide his hand down from Jacob's hip to find the damage, but his own numbed fingers didn't tell him much. Jacob shuddered at his touch and he stopped. It wasn't like he could do anything anyway.
    Screams rose again in the distance. Daniel pulled Jacob in closer against him.
    "What's that?" Jacob asked. "Someone's hurt?"
    "Sharks," Daniel muttered before he could think better of it.
    "Christ!" That sounded almost like the old Jacob. "Are you sure?"
    Daniel thought about the slow sinuous underwater glide of the predators, heralded only by the passage of those triangular fins. "Yes."
    Jacob struggled suddenly, ineffectually. "Let go! Let me go."
    "What?" Daniel loosened his hold but didn't release Jacob.
    "I'm bleeding. I know I am. You need to get away from me."
    "Oh. Fuck that."
    Jacob twisted, clipping Daniel's ear glancingly with a blow aimed back over his shoulder. "Get away. The sharks smell blood, you idiot. They'll be coming."
    "I'm not going anywhere."
    "You want me to be responsible for making you shark bait?" Already Jacob's struggles were weakening.
    Daniel pulled him in close again, tipping them back to get Jacob's mouth further clear of the oily water. "If you're shark bait then so am I. Sorry, Trip, you're stuck with me. So if you don't want to lure those sharks over here to eat both of us, quit kicking around and making the bleeding worse."
    Jacob subsided with a grunt. "That's dirty pool."
    "All's fair..." Daniel didn't complete the thought. "So hold still. I've got you."
    Jacob shuddered against him. "This is just a hallucination you know." His voice was harsh and he coughed drily. "The sun. You're not really here."
    "I'm hallucinating too then."
    "Nice to go crazy with company."
    "I had other places in mind to go with you, but I can do crazy if you want to. I'm agreeable."
    "It really is you."
    "Last I checked."
    "God." Jacob tipped his head back on Daniel's shoulder. Daniel reached up and