Retirement village? I'm a creature of the night, love. I'm Springheeled Jack, ain't I? I belong out here."

"You belong in a cell."

He laughed. "Me? In captivity? For what possible crime?"

"You mean, apart from murder?"

He turned his head so that he was looking at her out of the corner of one eye. "That still illegal, then?"

"Yes, it is."

She opened her coat, revealing the sword against her leg.

"You're under arrest."

He laughed, did a flip in the air, landed on his right foot, and grinned at her. "Now this is new. You were always pokin' your nose where it wasn't wanted, always dealin' out what you thought was justice, but you never arrested anyone. You a proper copper, now, that it? You one of the constabulary?"

"Give up, Jack."

"Bloody hell; you are. Consider me impressed."

He dipped his head, looked at her with those small eyes of his. "What was that you used to say, before things got all rough and tumble? 'Come and have a go-- '"

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"If you think you're hard enough."

He grinned. "Do you?"

She drew her sword from her scabbard. It caught a beam of moonlight and held it, and she looked back at him without expression. "I'll let you decide that."

And Springheeled Jack sprang.

He flipped over her and she turned, ducking the swipe of hard nails, moving again as he landed, narrowly avoiding the return swipe and twisting to face him as he came at her.

He batted the sword to one side and his right foot went to her thigh, his toenails digging in, and he clambered up, kneeling on her shoulder. She grabbed his wrist to avoid the nails. She stumbled, unable to support his weight, but he jumped before she hit the rooftop, landed gracefully as she rolled to a crouch, and then he dived at her again.

They went tumbling. He heard the sword clatter from her grip, and felt her foot on his belly as she kicked. He did a flip and landed, but her fist was right there, smacked him square in the face. He took a few steps back, bright lights dancing before his eyes. She kicked his knee and he howled in pain; then there was a grip on his wrist

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and a sudden wrenching.

He pushed her away, his vision clearing.

"You should be leavin' me alone!" he spat. "I'm unique, me! They don't even have a name for what I am! I should be on the Endangered Species List! You should be protectin' me!"

"You know how they protect endangered species, Jack? They put them in a special enclosure, where no one can harm them."

His face twisted. "Enclosure's a fancy word for a cell, innit? And you're not takin' me anywhere near a bloody cell."

And then it drifted up to them: the sound of a baby crying. Jack's expression softened and he smiled again.

"Don't even think about that," Tanith warned.