Cat approaches, stares, then bites/claws me

[dustytiger]

I've ordered some feliway spray to see if it'll help but IDK what's upsetting her.
She is 8 years old, lil black female, spayed, all her shots, just a healthy lil gal.
I just can't seem to figure her out. I made another thread before about her, I am cat sitting for a friend atm and she's been with me almost a month now, but seems to have gotten worse rather than better.

I thought maybe it was over stimulation, so I tried to let her be the one to initiate pets, and let her rub her face and back against my hand as she pleased without further pursuing her. This worked for like the first week and I got little/no smacks or bites from her, however, her aggression seems to be escalating more and more.
Like now if I just hold my hand out when she approaches me, ( like running to me while meowing or jumping up on the table and sitting in front of me, staring) she'll bite and claw me. It used to be rather gentle at first, no real harm done, but over the past week she's really putting her weight into it. If I ignore her, she just sits there, until I just move to do something in general and then she'll bite and claw my hand anyway. I avoid eye contact just in general because I thought she might be seeing that as me trying to pick a fight, but she'll still do it. Then she'll like get comfortable in her spot and slow-blink and squint like she's satisfied and now may rest.

Like, don't get me wrong, she has her calm, affectionate moments where she'll purr and roll over and be super cute, but those are coming by less and less, and I don't know what's happening as nothing has changed from day 1.

I spoke to her owner and she was kind of like "Yeah, she must have gotten comfortable with you because that's how she treats me."

But like, damn, this sucks, and like

It doesn't feel normal??
Like, I really don't know what's going on in her head.
She's not hissing, growling, or anything. Her body language is weird (I discussed it in my previous thread), but not in an overtly aggressive way.
The clawing and biting seems like matter-of-fact, if that makes sense?

I respond largely by pulling my hand away and saying "No." in a calm voice, but that doesn't seem to do much to aid the situation. I've been playing with her regularly because I thought it was excess energy and she might be trying to initiate a game, but that hasn't seemed to have helped at all.

I just can't figure out if there is something going on with her or if this is just how she is.
I don't know, I thought this kind of behavior is a cat trying to communicate something... I just don't know what she wants.

I am starting to get very nervous as I don't seem to ever know if it's a moment of genuine affection where she wants to be petted or if she's coming for the express purpose of biting and scratching me. I never touch her without her being the one to initiate contact, and it is only when she comes to me that I'll hold my hand out, usually about a foot or half a foot away so she has plenty of space, and in the past few days just doing that has become a flip of the coin as to whether or not she will rub her face against it or rip it apart.

 

[ArtNJ]

I dunno man, my brother had one that was like this for life. His spouse made a no more cats ever rule based on the way this cat was. Maybe they aren't cat experts, but they are super nice and took as good care of the cat as they could -- my brother even loved that mean bastard of a cat. Sometimes its just hard to fix a cat like this. Its not your cat, and the cat is 8. Peronsally, I'd just let it go, try not to get scratched up too bad. There is no fixing some people, and maybe its the same with cats. Regardless, as a cat sitter, it would be a real long shot if you could fix this cat based on what your describing.