Page 33 of Eat, Slay, Love

He exhales sharply through his nose.

“Let me help you,” I say more quietly. “Let me help you protect your family.”

That one lands. His shoulders drop just a fraction. The rage bleeds out of his expression, replaced by something more vulnerable. After a long moment, he nods once. “Fine.”

13

We decide to go to my place, because that’s where all my supplies are. Powders, blades, chalk for drawing Baybayin symbols and words, and three different kinds of salt.

Also, because Batibat is probably really, really pissed at me.

I unlock all my wards before unlocking my front door so that Jonah isn’t rended into a thousand pieces.

“Batibat,” I call out. “If you’re still alive, please refrain from murder.”

Jonah steps in behind me, closing the door softly. The second we cross the threshold, the fine hairs on the back of my neck lift.

Batibat is sitting at the end of the hallway.

She’s entirely still and silent. Her tail swishes once, twice. Her eyes are fixed on me with the slow, calculating malice of a creature who has had four uninterrupted days to consider revenge.

I raise both hands. “I come in peace.”

She begins walking toward me. One paw. Then the next. Unhurried and deliberate, head tilted at a slight angle, likely considering the most effective angle at which to gut me from stomach to neck to remove my intestines and wear them as a scarf.

“Batibat,” I say carefully, pulse hammering in my ears. “A lot happened. I was critically injured. There was blood. You would have loved it.”

The temperature in the apartment seems to drop ten degrees.

She’s inches away now.

I hold my breath, brace myself for⁠—

One perfunctory sniff.

Then Batibat turns her back on me with regal disdain, and…

Winds herself around Jonah’s legs.

Purring.

Loudly!

“What in the actual⁠—”

Jonah is delighted. He picks her up (?!) and they nuzzle noses (?!!). “Beautiful little demon cat,” he croons at her, scratching under her chin.

I stare at them, mouth hanging open. “Batibat is a demon?” I finally screech. “Cats can be demons?!”

The two of them look at me like, obviously.

“If she’s a demon,” I demand, “how did she get past my wards? This apartment is a fortress. I layered those protections myself. I triple-bound the thresholds.”

Jonah shrugs lightly, still nuzzling my traitorous familiar. “She’s only about a tenth demon,” he says. “Barely enough to register.”

“That is not how wards work,” I snap.

“Maybe yours don’t discriminate,” he offers mildly. “Maybe they’re calibrated for full demons. Like ones with heavy corruption signatures. She’s… subtle.”