Hera and her squad had transformed back into humans and were already on their horses to the vampire palace when they saw the kids.
They were armed, but they were harmless.
They didn't even seem to know how to wield the swords they were handed properly. They were literal children and she knew this was a strategy by Gonzalez. The bastard was using young children to protect himself from invasion.
He figured that if the warriors were down, then no sane person would kill children just to reach him, but that is what he was doing. He was sending the young kids to their deaths and it didn't seem to bother him one bit.
Carl's heart broke for these kids. They reminded him of how young he had been when his parents had died in the Alexei attack. Their state reminded him of how helpless he had been then. He wanted to comfort the kids, but he also knew that the bastard was watching them.