Obsidian Souls (Soul Series) by Donna Augustine

people they are, that was your first mistake. They aren’t people.”
                  “What are they then?”
                  “They are called Drauths. They are the descendents of demons.”
                  “You’re saying they are the children of the devil?”
                  “No, not the devil, demons, and it’s not offspring like you would think. When a Demon has sex with a human woman very early in her pregnancy, they can corrupt the fetus. Mutate it if you will. It very rarely happens, but when it does it changes the DNA.”
                  My brain started to spin. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him he was crazy, but then what human could stand there, laughing in a fire like that? Gruesome thoughts of horned creatures were running through my brain at lightning speed. I wanted to know more, but as it turned out, he was right; I didn’t even know what to ask. Luckily or perhaps unluckily, he continued.
                  “Demons having offspring doesn’t happen often. It only occurs about once every hundred years or so.”
                  “Then how are there so many of these Drauths?”
                  “Drauths live for thousands of years. If that Drauth has a child, you can’t really predict how long it will live, but it’s going to be longer then a normal human life. Some of them that were there tonight weren’t full Drauths. Some are only a quarter or an eighth. They get significantly weaker every generation.”
                  “Why are they so intent on getting me? Why would a Drauth want me? I’m not evil? If anything, I’m really good person. Or at least I try to be.”
                  “This has nothing to do with good or bad. You could be an angel or a mass murderer. It would make no difference.”
                  “Why then?”
                  “This is going to be difficult to hear but Drauths can sense demon blood, or something inhuman, in other beings.” He paused, just looking at me, as if trying to gauge a reaction to something he hadn’t said yet.
                  “I don’t get it?” I did, but I needed to hear it.
                  “You are at least part demon. You’re something else as well, but I can’t get a good read on you.”
                  “Well you’re wrong. I have normal parents. How would you know anyway?”
                  “Lex, things aren’t black and white like you think. You could be the child of a rapist, that doesn’t mean you would be evil.”
                  “A rapist is human at least! You’re trying to tell me I’m not even human!”
                  “You are, just partly, well… at least I think.”
                  “And how do you know this?”
                  He shrugged in a way that didn’t need words. He was one too.
    “I’m not. I have two very, very normal parents and absolutely nothing out of the ordinary has ever happened to me. Your weird senses are off! I’m not like you and I’m not like them!”
                  “We aren’t all bad.”
                  “No! I don’t care what you say. I know what I am.”
                  “I can prove it to you. I was hoping to avoid the cheap demon tricks but if we must we must.”
                  “Fine! Prove it.”
                  “Come over here.” He waved me over into the kitchen.
                  Even though he was the same man I had wrapped my arms around less than an hour ago, I now felt the need to keep a greater distance apart.
                  He reached across the distance and grabbed my wrist, pulling me closer to him and he turned on the gas burner to high. He pushed back the sleeve of my shirt and I knew what he was going to