So as some of you may have run into, I have a companions bug running that causes me to have a "follower" who isn't there but keeps me from asking others to join me "You have someone with you already". (Caused by the vilkas can't be cured of being a werewolf loop.) Having said that, I've tried to play around it but have run into the issue again when trying to do the Daedric Quest for Boethia. As you know you have to lead someone to the shrine to trick them into being trapped and killed. This necessitates using a "follower" for the task. Now, while I can't "ask" someone to be a follower, certain situations in some quests have allowed the "ghost" follower to be displaced by an NPC-follower relative to the active quest temporarily. Does anyone have any suggestions on a quest to undertake or search for where I can re-direct the follower to the Boethia shrine instead without losing a major quest goal in the process?

anyone... anyone... Bueller?

If you're on the PC you can simply use the console to fix this.
You can reset your follower status with the command "set playerfollowercount to 0". This should allow you to ask someone to follow you again.
Another option is to move the missing follower to you:
"prid "
"moveto player"
You can find the ref id for the missing follower of his or her article on http://www.uesp.net/

If you're on the console I got nothing for you. Sorry.